Cupid Delarius
by Atomdancerrr
Summary: Cupid runs a high fever. Various colorful hallucinations show up & his family. If Trevor truly were crazy this would be it! Loved writing this! Know You will love reading it! :


A deep note of gratitude to The Icemenace for advice about what Ukulele song for Uncle Mercury to play. This one is absolutely perfect! Long ago we wrote a wonderful, funny A Team story/Doctor Who crossover together called "The A Team and the Tardis Incident." If you enjoy this story you would enjoy that one. It is really about a character with Dissociative Identity "Disorder" also though at the time I didn't know as much and called it Schizophrenia. The two conditions are hard to tell apart sometimes but if the hallucinations (if they even always are hallucinations) are adaptive and have cohesive Personalities of their own and aid their Hosts some way or at least don't hurt them it is most likely DID not Schizophrenia where the hallucinations almost always cause harm. This is especially indicative if the Personas at one time or another take completely over the Host which they may or may not do. DID at its best may not be a problem at all but just another way of being. Many DIDS are joining with high functioning Autists in demanding neuro-diversity acceptance, insisting with plenty of good evidence and logic that since they function at least as well or even better as "Singlets" having more than one operating system may just be normal for some Folks. The "walk in" persona, Cupid is correct even when speaking for his amazingly docile and silent Host. He is "colorful not crazy!

The Icemenace also writes great Stargate fanfiction and other really neat stuff. Check her out!

Cupid: Hilariously Delirious!

by

Elizabeth Hensley 8-)

Dr. Claire McCrae, Therapist and Psychiatrist, famous best selling Author and Relationship Expert ran down the paths of Central park on a beautiful Spring day with the wind in her long blonde hair, enjoying every minute of being fully alive when her cell phone rang. She answered it and a Patient of her's, Cupid the Greco-Roman god of love, told her he had just gotten a couple of tattoos.

She sighed. _A Therapist's work is never done._ "How very macho of you, Trevor. What do they say?"

He told her calmly, *Actually they are my social security number. And the word 'replacement' after it. I have that tattooed in very small letters on the top side of of the bottom part of my right arm and the front part of the bottom part of my left leg in black ink.*

Claire was surprised, "I am amazed at the mediocrity of your subject matter! I was expecting a big red heart across your chest with the words, 'Cupid and Claire.' Or the words, 'lightning bolt love and a big lightning bolt.' Or something equally as colorful as you try to be all the time and usually over-succeed. Why this?"

Trevor said, *I would rather not have needles touch my skin at all! I got enough of them at Sachs-Gordon! No. I chose to do this for safety reasons. I never want to be separated from you, Claire Bear! So in a way this shows my love for you just as much as if I had gone for that big red heart or lighting bolt love or something like that. Even more so! You wanted me to gain insight into my so called 'mental condition.' So you had me read all those books about Dissociative Identity Disorder. And apparently running away from home and forgetting one's past during a stressful period in one's life is common. You think that's what happened to me. That because of something too stressful to stand I just upped and left and so to speak committed mental suicide by killing or at least squelching my first operating system and starting a new one and becoming Cupid. So if this is true somewhere out there is a set of grieving Family and Friends I cruelly left behind because I couldn't handle something and that's how I selfishly dealt with it. I hope not! But just in case it's true I certainly don't want to do it to a second set of Friends and lose you forever if something like that happens again! So I thought up a way to defeat myself just in case I really am 'crazy Trevor' and you are so right and I am so wrong, I remember when I was brought to Sachs-Gordon, Doctor Cornelius examined every inch of me hoping for just such a tattoo, anything, even a scar! I had nothing of course, not even a filled tooth or a small pox vaccination. But if that's the truth about me and it ever happens again the next examining Doctor will find what he wants to find and what I guess the new me then won't want him to find but this me sure does!* 

Claire said. "Well Trevor I don't know what to say! What a great idea! You are right! This does show your love for me a whole lot more than a big red Cupid heart would. And what means more to me than that; it shows me after five long years of our verbal struggling you are finally listening to me as a Patient. It shows me you are making progress!"

Trevor growled, *Don't get your hopes up, Psyche!

Claire giggled._ His comical-sensical Mortal __precaution had spoken louder than his mere __stage thunder of Olympian grand __proclamations! Rather he liked it or not (or could even consciously realize it or admit it) she was winning! Normalcy was creeping up on him!_ Then she hung up on him!

And she continued her run humming, "stupid Cupid" as she did so. But he had been anything but stupid. Or so they both thought!

One day later, Claire was carefully chewing and enjoying with gusto every lip smacking bite of her breakfast of strawberry yogurt and an English muffin with real butter when she got an extremely disturbing phone call. It was Felix. *Claire, Trevor's mental state has taken a sudden turn for the worse, really bad! He's usually completely with it and makes perfect sense when he talks if you grant him that Olympus exists and he's from it and you allow for his whimsy and references to things most of us have never heard of. But now he's hallucinating and he's not making much sense and his eyes aren't even tracking some of the time! *

"My God!" exclaimed Claire.

Felix said *Well for him _that _would be sort of normal. But now he's not even claiming that! No Olympian references. He's giggling to himself about the cute little Tribbles crawling out of the cracks in the walls and pointing at nothing! _What_ Tribbles and _what cracks!_ And for all his talk of Tribbles I can't even get him to watch Star Trek! That _really_ worries me! We can't even get him to eat! Even Lita tried!*

"I'm already running down the stairs, Felix! I didn't wait for the elevator!"

Claire didn't take her car either. Knowing how bad traffic was she knew just running to Tres Equis was faster. She looked quite crazy herself. Her hair wasn't brushed, her makeup wasn't applied, and her own eyes had a rather wild glow. She came as quickly as she could, anyway she could. On Avenue of the Americas she jay walked across the middle of the street to save time and darted between two cars that had to screech to miss her. She was glad no Cop stopped her. Stopping to explain to Cops would have taken more time! She was also glad none of her Friends, Co-workers or Patients saw her!

She ran up the stairs of Tres Equis two at a time, glad she was a Runner and had the endurance, and barged into Felix's apartment without bothering to knock. He'd left it open for her.

She pushed into Trevor's room the same way knowing full well that's was where Felix would be too.

Trevor was out of it alright! Wild eyed, and confused! Hair like lightning had zapped it. Shirt unbuttoned. Unshaven. Rumpled! For the first time Psychotic in appearance instead of merely on dry paper that had People doing a double take. For the Psychotic label didn't seem to fit calm, happy, friendly Trevor unless he brought up his "family past." But as a medical Doctor Claire noticed something else. Performing the highly sophisticated medical technique of putting her hand up to his forehead she confirmed it. "He's burning up Felix! I'm relieved! His Psychosis hasn't taken a sudden, horrible turn for the worse! He's just delirious from a fever! Unless it's antibiotic resistant he should be fine!"

Felix went "Whew!" in relief.

Trevor chortled like a Parrot, "moldy bread! Moldy bread! Mortal magic!"

Claire stared at him, "And he may not be as out of it as we think! For _him _that just made sense! Trevor if you are faking any part of this and I ever figure that out and as a Psychiatrist ve _do _have vays of making you talk. (Said like the German Potted Palm Spy on Laugh In). There is Sodium Pentathol and it would _not_ hurt you. (You would find it pleasant so I'm half tempted), I'll _kill you!_ Got that, love god?" She said that last part ever so sweetly!

"Grape juice plus!" Crowed Trevor. "Planet of the Apes!"

"Ah ha! I thought so! Practicing your acting for your Improv group as a homework assignment or to get attention? But you_ are_ hot! Come on. You should come to the Outpatient clinic across the street. No confinement. I promise you. This isn't Psychiatric. I'm a Medical Doctor too. Remember? I'll give you a shot of some Antibiotic and if you are a good god about it and don't make too big a fuss I'll give you a grape Tootsie Pop."

Trevor licked his lips at the thought of the grape candy and the chocolate even as his butt flinched in fearful fancy in anticipation of the needle and got up to follow her, trying gamely to be an obedient Mental and Fever Patient, got all the way to his bedroom door and collapsed face down, a big grin on his face, love be-smitten with his Claire Bear even in his delirium.

Clare and and Felix stared down at him.

Claire sighed and said. "Alright. Plan B."

As the Paramedics hauled Trevor's stretcher down the stairs Felix frowned and said to Claire, "You know you broke your promise to him? He's being re-confined at Sachs-Gordon again. His worst nightmare! Well not his worst. He tells me he wakes up replaying having his wings ripped out of their sockets and Uncle Apollo and Uncle Neptune flying him across the ocean and hurling him head first into the pavement on second blvd and that's why there's a depression in the concrete there and why he's forgotten so much. I thought that was just an ordinary pot hole! But he says being taken to Sachs-Gordon again his will is his _second_ worst nightmare."

Claire sighed again and shook her head, "What was I supposed to do, Felix? Leave him in the doorway of his room face down running a dangerously high temperature? He's headed to the the Infection Ward not the Psyche Ward this time. We do treat Physical Patients too, you know!"

"But he's strapped down!"

"All Patients are strapped down when they are put in stretchers. Especially when they are unconscious or semiconscious, especially when they are being hauled over uneven terrain, like stairs. Felix I bet when he comes to his senses he'll be better about it then you're being! He wasn't even fighting it. Come on. Let's go on across the street to admitting and stay with him through the whole process."

Felix shook his head, "I can't unfortunately. I have to take his shift. This time for once he's got a good excuse!"

Claire nodded. "Well there are advantages to being almost fired. He's just about my only Patient at this moment so off I go again into the Trevor breech! This'll make an interesting chapter in the book I'm writing about him that he's not supposed to know about but he does: How a patient who thinks he is a cast down Greek god handles being physically ill and back in the same hospital he spent time in as a Mental Patient but this time in the infectious disease ward. Toodle loo!"

The Paramedics transferred Trevor to a hospital bed, grateful to be rid of him. They were so very glad they'd only had to wheel him across the street! He'd sung the Gilligan Island Theme song all the way across in several languages or at least he claimed they were, "ancient Phonetician. Hebrew, ancient Egyptian, Latin, ancient Croatian, Celtic, and Thessalonian Greek." Fredrick Miles said, "Will you _please_ can it with Gilligan's Island already!" So Trevor cheerfully switched to singing the Brady Bunch Theme song in all those languages instead all the time they'd had him in the emergency room! The other waiting Patient's dirty looks hadn't curbed him one bit!"

His fervent singing, high fever and preexisting psychotic diagnosis had one wonderful effect. That got him out of the waiting room and into a hospital room at warp speed. And because he was a "Psychotic Mental Patient," they gave him a room all to himself. It was either that or find a fellow fever Patient who liked all versions of Star Trek, had an advanced degree in ancient languages, a working knowledge of Greek and Roman Mythology and who also liked the Gilligan's Island and Brady Bunch theme songs A WHOLE LOT!

For some reason they were not able to find one quickly enough!

Claire assisted Trevor into a hospital gown. He frowned. "Oh no! Another dinky do!"

Claire sighed. "Sorry, Trevor!"

He obediently took off is own clothes and put on what did not even begin to cover the territory. He grumbled. "This is why they call this place an "I see you."

Claire laughed and nodded in complete agreement as Trevor climbed into his bed and pulled up his covers. "There!" He smiled. "Obedient patient as always. Hector and Isaac phoned this one in." He closed his eyes and almost immediately fell into a sound sleep which of course was immediately disturbed by...

...Dr. Cornelius coming in with an antibiotic injection for him. Good medicine. Horrible timing.

Usually a Nurse would have done the injecting but Dr. Cornelius was trying to access Trevor's physical and mental state at the same time. "Mr Pierce wake up and roll over. I need to give you this antibiotic."

Trevor opened his eyes and said, "Call me, Cupid."

"Mr Pierce I will call you anything you want me to if you will just roll over!"

Trevor was already doing so.

Dr. Cornelius pushed the needle into his right cheek.

Tears came to Trevor's eyes. "Wow! That hurt!"

"I'm sorry, ah Cupid. I didn't mean to hurt you."

That's alright. I forgive you, Mortal. You know not what you do." Trevor calmly rubbed his sore butt. You could have sprayed on a little ethyl chloride first!"

"Getting a little Christ complex?"

No." Trevor said in a childish voice. "Earning me a grape Tootsie Pop. Claire Bear promised me a grape Tootsie Pop if I'd be a good god and not make a fuss and I didn't! And she always keeps her promises!" Trevor grinned. As his hero, Captain Kirk would have put it he had his Mortals exactly where they wanted him!

Dr. Cornelius stared at Dr. Claire McCrae as if she were the crazy one!

She shrugged and gave Dr. Robert Cornelius a, "What is one supposed to do?" Look.

Claire continued to sit by Trevor's hospital bed a good bit of the day. Trevor went in and out of what were for him lucid periods. She insisted he not be strapped down. The Nurses grumbled about violating hospital procedure. "His medical records says he's a Psychotic! And now he's delirious too!"

But because she is a Doctor they heeded her. (For the time being: She couldn't watch him every minute).

Even in the throes of delirium he was sweet natured. "Ohhhh look! Birdies!" He pointed at thin air just as happy as he could be! When his Claire Bear was with him he had no fear.

To humor him Claire asked, "Oh? How nice! What kind of Birdies?" She was not terribly concerned about his hallucinating since it was fever induced and he was enjoying it. She was as usual writing something in her big yellow pad. But it wasn't her usual taking down of what Trevor was saying."

Trevor grinned a loopy grin and pointed, "Blue Birdies! A whole flock of cute, widdle Blue Birdies!"

To make conversation Claire asked as she continued to trace what she had already written in large letters over and over again. "How many constitutes a flock?"

Trevor thought about that a minute. Sweat was pouring off his forehead and drenching his pillow. Claire set her pad and pencil down for a moment and took a tissue and patted his forehead.

He smiled a slightly saner smile, "Ah! That feels gooood!"

She smiled politely. "Glad you like it."

He started counting as he pointed at thin air "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen." He smiled. Then crowed "There are at least thirteen! Lucky thirteeeeeen constitutes a flock of luckeeey Blue Birdieees for Claire Bear and Cupeeeey!"

Claire said, "You are going to be soooo perturbed with me later when I play this back for you! I have my little tape recorder in my pocket runnnnning!"

Trevor looked at her, his eyes glowing like diamonds from the fever but at least part of that was love."Yes? He nodded very enthusiastically. His eyes never left her face. Sickness had made him revert to being as a small child.

Claire smiled at him and nodded back just as enthusiastically. "Yes! I wouldn't miss recording this for all the Planet and the ISS! It's not of much clinical interest since we all do this sort of thing when we're hotter than the top of a stove cooking Chicken soup. But just think of the blackmail potential! You signed a release! I can tell Felix _anything!_ You wouldn't mind me discussing your delusions with him because you don't think you have any! But _this_ would embarrass the stuffings out of you! I'll have you on time for your next ten sessions!"

Trevor licked his lips, "Chicken soup!"

Claire nodded. "Yes. I'll bring you some."

Trevor said, "Poor little Chicken!" Then he started sobbing as if his divine heart would break!

Claire didn't know what to do. "Oh, poor Trevor! It'll be all right. It was a _good_ Chicken and it made its peace with the Big Guy and it's in the Mortal- Keep now!"

Trevor looked at her hopefully. "You sure?"

"I'm sure."

"You _promise?_"

"Cross my heart and hope to.." She stopped herself but not in time. Trevor started sobbing again. "Oh Claire don't _die!_ You're go to the Mortal-Keep and I'll go back to the Olympus and we'll never see each other _ever _again! They let us wifi each other's keeps but we won't be able to hug!"

Claire patted him on the back, "There, there now, when I die I won't go to the Mortal-Keep. I'll come Olympus with you and try to straighten out your ditzy family."

Trevor's face lit up. "you promise?"

Claire said, "I promise."

Trevor said almost as if he wasn't running a fever all of the sudden, "Oh this is _wonderful!_ Like you said you've got your little tape recorder runnnnning! That makes it just as legal where I come from just as if you'd signed a contract!"

_Claire felt a chill go up and down her spine. Was this like_ _something out of a Twilight __Zone episode? She did her best to shake it __off! But had she just signed away her soul? __Well Mount Olympus wasn't Hell and __Trevor wasn't the devil! So even if she really __had it wasn't __**that**__ bad! Hopefully! _She said trying to change the subject._ "_Now get some rest and count the the rest of those Blue Birdies and I'll go make you some soup from a___very_ good Chicken."

Trevor said, "I love you, Claire Bear!" His eyes had gone back to glowing like dark coals from fever. 

She nodded. "I know you do! Now try to rest!"

But he was too excited at Claire's promise to rest. His eyes were wild with fever again and with love. "Oh Claire, Olympus is so beautiful! You are going to love it! You hadn't actually built your Mortal-Keep yet but you did have some of yourselves saved already! You had found a black hole you could use to go back in Time with and you'd gone back and got the operating systems of Disney and Leonardo Di Vinci and Norman Rockwell and Thomas Kinkaid and they designed Olympus! Well most of it. There were others. They argued a lot. Such language! I've seen videos. The making of Olympus! And …."

Claire gave a pointed look at the Nurse who nodded. She gave "Cupid" a quick injection and then like a light he was out for the night. At this point even Claire was past the point of disagreeing to some sedation.

She was about ready for some herself!

She eased her way out and closed the door and took her pad and ripped off the page she had just written on and took some tape out of purse and taped it to Trevor's hospital door.

It said in big letters she had gone over and over again to darken them.

"Remember! Trevor is running a fever! He's delirious! Current Speech patterns, sensory input and behavior are only manifestations of high body temperature!"

Dr. Charles Greeley walked by at that moment as she was taping it up. He smiled, "You think we are fools, Claire? 

She said grimly, "After the Thorax C disaster I KNOW you are! You should never have listened to Dr. Frechette! Why does he have it out for Trevor anyway? He's been terrified of Trevor from the moment he first met him but he refuses to say why! Trevor's not a sex offender so he didn't fit the criteria for that drug! Amazingly considering how rare this delusion is there was another patient who thought he was Cupid living in Chicago who was connected to the mental hospital where Dr. Frechette worked at before, where your brother, Milton is the head of psychiatry, and Dr. Frechette tried to test the older formulation of this drug, Thorax B on him! He even had the same first name of Trevor! But he looks nothing like our Trevor. I checked. Definitely not the same person. They can't be! But it's like Dr. Frechette and our Trevor knew one another from before! And it's like our Trevor expected Dr. Frechette to do what he did! He had that Lawyer who could help him on his speed dial and hit it literally the split second Dr. Frechette mentioned 'Thoroxelatizine-C!' Weird!"

Dr. Greeley grasped his heart."Ouch!

Claire frowned and shook her head. "No. for you it wasn't an 'ouch.' But For Trevor it was almost, 'kiss my big brain goodby.' He has the highest recorded IQ in history and Dr. Frechette wanted it to be permanently chemically lobotomized like a Soviet Union era, mental hospital Christian just to test one more psyche drug when we already have a PDR psyche med section full of much better meds and we only have one Trevor Pierce in all of history! And you were going to let him! I won't forget that Charles! Neither will the General Public. That You Tube video we made has gone viral. Trevor took it off of You Tube but it's popped up again in over a dozen other sites that we know of and some of them we don't even approve of. We're not against psyche drugs, just their misuse and you know that. If they help the Patient control their distressing symptoms to give them better quality of life and to help the function better, that's great. But it they are used to help the hospital control the Patient, that is _very_ wrong unless the Patient really does not mind those kind of high doses and most of the time they do. But the Scientologists got hold of it, and a few other sites even worse than theirs." Claire frowned. "That wasn't our intention. Wisdom is in the middle. Use medications but don't over use them. Anyway Trevor will be back to being a hyper-competent, sane delusional again in complete contact with his surroundings even if his memories and self concept are out of this World soon as his body and brain temperature is down to a nice normal 98.7." Then Claire smiled, "And I'd better go get him a whole bag full of grape Tootsie Pops! He'll already demanding one because he's had a needle stick and he was very good! He really doesn't act like a Child concerning needles. He just acts like a Child concerning Tootsie Pops. It's a game we play because of his high IQ to keep him from being bored. It's just one more thing I do to distract him from thinking about Olympus. I pretend I have to bribe him to get him to cooperate and and he pretends he's tricked me into thinking I have to! Trevor always manages to squeeze all the fun he can out of any situation he's in however dire. We have to admire him for that!"

Dr. Greeley nodded, "I do. I don't even want to think what reality he's escaping from considering what he confabulated to replace it with! If I were going to conjure myself being a deity I'd have picked one with more social oomph! Trevor seems content to be low god on the totem pole and I can't figure out why!"

Claire nodded, "That's a puzzle alright! Except for his little brother Anteros he fancies himself the youngest, least powerful god in his entire, extended family of deities. Trevor has confabulated a crazy-making past for himself! This isn't megalomania, Charles. It only looks like it!"

Dr. Greeley nodded, "I used to think you weren't pushing him fast enough. But I've rethought that. The man is sick, Claire! Very sick!"

"Charles!" Claire snarled! "He's doing _very_ well!" She was a Mama Mongoose defending her Baby from a Rattlesnake!

Charles backed off and stopped just short of making his fingers into a cross at her! Then he scurried away from her down the hall.

Claire stared at her Boss as he left, frowned, shook her head and sighed.

A Visit from Uncle Mercury!

The next day Trevor was still feverish and still very delirious. The Nurses still wanted him strapped down. "It's for his own safety!" They insisted. "While you weren't here he was watching a Star Trek marathon!"

Claire said soothingly, "Well what's wrong with that? Lot's of intelligent People and even some not so intelligent like Star Trek. It kept him occupied and out of trouble."

"He was watching it in Greek! There was no Star Trek marathon in Greek! There was no Star Trek marathon at _all!_ And his TV set wasn't even on!"

"Ah Oh!" said Claire! "Well at least it _did _keep him occupied!"

Meanwhile back on Walton's Mountain. Whoops! Excuse me. Wrong show! Meanwhile back on Mount Olympus. (You can see how I got the two mixed up there for a few seconds, can't you?) Uncle Mercury lay under his favorite Olive Tree chewing on a piece of straw in the back of his little palace, Mortal gazing. He realized something and picked up his new fangled cell phone. He was trying to get used to it. He hadn't even gotten used to the bill yet! Somehow he managed to punch the right numbers to dial his brother, King Neptune, Lord of the Oceans. Last time he'd reached a little old Lady in Spain instead and she'd refused to believe she was talking to the genuine Greek Messenger god. She thought she was talking to her ex Husband instead and demanded he pay her his back alimony! How embarrassing! _The dang nabbed things were just about putting him out of his __job too on top of everything else!_

Neptune answered. He had been busy polishing his tridents. "Hey Merc! Long time no hear! What's bubblin?"

"Neppy my maybe-kid is hot!"

"Well of_ course_ he is!"

"No. I mean he's feverish."

"Oh. Sorry 'bout that. I wouldn't worry about it." Neptune plopped the trident he was polishing into an umbrella stand and picked up another one. "The Mortals have figured out that some kinds of Bacteria fight other kinds of Bacteria and use some rather painful hollow tubes and potions to put that stuff inside of themselves to aid their own immune systems. So 'Trevor' will be fine. Or if he dies he'll just be back up here again and the tribunal will either abort his punishment or send him back down again in another Host and he'll have to start all over again. But eventually with that kid's tenacity he'll make it. It's his second attempt anyway, isn't it? Didn't the Chicago attempt get aborted by some Shrink who figured out an exorcism could kick him out of there?"

Uncle Mercury nodded. This would not have worked as normal cellphone communication but they were also watching each other with their selective omnipresence. "But it'll set him back years and years! We're 'posed to be immortal. How can just a few short years seem so lonnnng!" Mercury wailed. "Bro, I miss him so much! I want him backkkkkk!"

Neptune had an idea. "If he's feverish maybe he's delirious. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Mercury's ability to learn new information had been damaged by too many lightning bolts in jealous fights with Mars about Cupid's Mother but nothing was wrong with his comprehension other than being almost 8000 years old. He got it immediately. He was off in a flash. And being who he is, I _do_ mean a flash!

Claire decided she had been wrong about Trevor's delirium having no clinical significance. It developed a delightful wrinkle! Uncle Mercury suddenly showed up!

And just in the nick of time too. Cupid was so out of it even Claire was thinking of having him strapped down! He was bouncing up and down on the bed like a little kid except that bed wasn't built to take his fully adult weight bouncing on it. He was also spinning around and round and pointing everywhere at the ceiling. "Claire Bear! Look! Look! Look! Aren't they cuuuute! Little teeny-tiny starship Enterprises. Dozens of them!'

Uncle Mercury was exasperated. "Oh Gazooks, Eros! You are really out of it! Starship Enterprises indeed! There is no teeny tiny Starship Enterprises soaring around in this hospital room! Mortals won't invent that thing until thousands of years from now. They invent Faster Than Light starships a lot quicker but the nacelles were the problem. They kept being ripped off by the speed of the things. Space isn't a perfect vacuum. There is just enough dust and stuff out there to provide enough drag to do that. The Great Bird of the Galaxie's Dove-like design was real purty for the Telly but it wasn't practical for Reality Space. Mork From Ork's Egg Ships actually worked much better. Took Future Mortals centuries longer after they had real Faster than Lights to make a real Enterprise and real Klingon War Birds but anyway you don't have little teeny tiny ones up there. No Eros, you do not!"

"Do too! Do too! Do too! Claire, Uncle Mercury just showed up."

Claire was amazed, "Trevor! He isn't really there!"

Trevor frowned and said stubbornly, "Is too! I got just as much right to have my family visit me when I'm sick as anybody!"

Claire sighed and nodded, not able to dispute that logic. She said to thin air, "Nice to meet you, Uncle Mercury. Think you can calm your nephew down!"

Uncle Mercury said, "I'll try!"

Trevor sighed, "He says he'll, he'll twy!"

Claire laughed.

Uncle Mercury started singing a lulluby that he had sung to Cupey as a tiny two hundred year old. To his relief it worked and "Trevor" relaxed a bit and quit bouncing and spinning. But he kept looking at all the little ships. "Oh Uncle Mercury there goes a cute, wittle blue one, just like the Blue Birdies who were here earlier!"

Uncle Mercury said, "Cupey there are no little starship Enterprises!"

"Cupey" was almost asleep. Firmly he said, "Are too! Are too! Are too!"

Claire was amazed. "Did Uncle Mercury just tell you, you don't have little starships up there?"

Trevor nodded and folded his arms stubbornly, "Yup. But he's WRONG." He frowned at his Uncle who was really his Father. "Do TOO!"

Claire couldn't help laughing. "Now that's amazing! One fever induced hallucination is reality checking the other ones! Ohhh that goes in my book!" She grinned and nodded at him, "Yes I know you know I'm writing it so I might as well be up front about it!"

Uncle Mercury frowned. "Trevor I know where your fever is coming from."

That made Trevor wake up again and he suddenly started acting a bit more adult."Claire Bear, Uncle Merc says he knows where my fever is coming from!"

That turned her attention to serious. "Trevor ask him to tell us where he thinks your fever is coming from. We don't even know what it _is!_ We've tried a dozen antibiotics on you and you've been _real_ good about not complaining and are earning the whole candy store because your butt and arms really are turning into a pin cushions!"

Cupid said, "Uncle Mercury, Claire says..."

"Eros _I_ can hear _her!_ Eros show Claire the tattoo on your left leg."

Cupid swung his head wide. "Don't need to. She's seen it. It's not that pretty. Wasn't meant to be. Was meant to be prac, prac, ract..Was meant to be useful. So I could find her again if I lost me."

Uncle Mercury was puzzled. His craggy forehead wrinkled even more. "How does one lose one's self?"

Cupid shook his head, "Psyche says I can!"

Uncle Mercury stared at his kid, "And she thinks _you _are crazy?"

Cupid shrugged.

Uncle Mercury said, "I can see all through your system even on a microscopic level, even on a quark level but that ain't necessary for what we need right now. Remember? Your tattoo is where the infection is coming from."

Cupid shook his head. "The needles were _clean._ I watched the Mortal Lady sterilize them herself. I made _certain!"_

Uncle Mercury frowned. "Oh my poor kid! It wasn't the needles!

He bent way down and kissed his son on his feverish forehead. "It was the ink!"

Cupid stared at his Uncle/Father. "The ink!"

Claire overheard. "The ink, Trevor? You think something in the ink did this to you?"

Trevor swung around and looked at his beloved Therapist. "My Uncle Mercury does. If so what is bugging me may be something exotic. You know that ink stuff comes from Red China and other places sometimes."

Claire said, "Sometimes the subconscious knows things our conscious doesn't know and communicates in dreams and even in hallucinations. So this may be a real lead." She swung her head up and gazed at the patch of nothing her god-patient had been talking to. She smiled. "Thanks, Uncle Mercury!"

Trevor said, "Uncle Mercury says, 'You're welcome!' and, 'He's over 8000 years old and you are the purtiest Mortal he's _ever_ seen!' He's right too!"

Dr. Claire McCrae couldn't help smiling at that. "And I see like your nephew or son you are a charmer! Now I know what part of his brain he gets that from!"

Uncle Mercury guffawed. "She thinks I'm a hallucination like your teeny-tiny, widdle starships!"

Cupid nodded, "Now you see what I go through _all_ the time!"

"My sympathy's, kid!"

Trevor pulled his blankets off and let Claire see his tattoo. It had been a few days since either one of them had bothered to look at it.

Six inches of his left leg was one big black and blue circle of infection!

Claire gasped. So did Trevor.

Claire said, "Oh my God, Trevor!"

Trevor nodded smugly, "Thank you!"

Claire frowned. "No! That was really a prayer to the Big Guy! Because you could lose this leg! Because obviously your own immune system isn't having much success fighting whatever bacteria this is and we are about out of the bacteria that are on our side to fight the hostile ones. I don't know what to do! I really am at the point where I feel like calling in some Prayer Warriors. Because there are some preliminary double blind studies that showed there is more going on there than just blind chance. Much more."

Trevor nodded. "I know more about that than you do. Of course!"

Claire asked. "I am surprised your family can't do something. That is if you were who you say you are!'

Trevor shrugged. "We aren't omnipotent. We never were but now there have been even more serious limitations been placed on our powers by the Administration change and also by Zeus's illness. There had to be after that Vulture eating Prometheus's ever regenerating liver incident. We don't even mind, bitter as it was for us because NEVER again must something like that EVER be allowed to happen!"

Dr. Cornelius had entered the room during most of this conversation. He gave Claire a questioning eyebrow. She had been talking to Trevor long enough to explain for him because she had heard this one before. She gazed at Dr. Cornelius and then at Trevor and explained. "A few thousand years before the coming of Christ, Uncle Vulcan and Uncle Mercury went camping just as we Humans do."

Trevor corrected. You _Mortal _Humans. We gods are Human too. The Building Mortals built us using mostly your own template. We just don't age as quickly or die. Or at least we aren't supposed to die."

Claire sighed, "OK I stand corrected. 'We Mortal Humans do.' Anyway Vulcan and Mercury went camping. And this cute little Mortal wandered into their camp. I don't know how cute he really was but to Trevor at least we all are cute. They wanted a camp fire for most of the reasons we want camp fires when we go camping, except if I have it right marshmallows hadn't been invented yet. Right?" She glanced at Trevor for confirmation.

He nodded, "Right. We had sausages and we cooked them on a stick just is as done today. We just didn't call then, 'hot dogs.'"

Claire contributed. "But with the Mortal there they didn't dare start a fire their usual way by using one of their thunder bolts. They didn't want to scare him. So in this case it was Uncle Mercury who was the clever one, not the usually inventive Uncle Vulcan. Uncle Merc just picked up a piece of natural iron pyrite and a piece of flint. That stuff is a lot harder to find just laying around now because we know it has value. But back then no one knew it had value so it was just laying around all over the place. He struck the two together, made a spark that he directed toward a little pile of dry leaves, gently blew on it and presto chango, magic! The gods had their campfire! And the cute little Mortal watched this. It was not that Mortals didn't have fire already as the myth came to be written. We did have fire and we had for a very long time. But we didn't know how to make fire. We had to harvest it from nature, from lightning strikes and from volcano blasts. So if your campfires went out (and that could be a major disaster), you had to go get some from a neighboring Tribe. And that kept the peace. You did not dare be enemies with your Neighbors! They had what you needed. They didn't mind giving it to you because it cost them nothing to do so and they also knew the time might come when they needed it from you back again. So there was a lot of motivation not to get into major tiffs and arguments. And definitely not wars! But then along came Prometheus with his new trick he had learned from the gods! To say he had stolen it would be really being bitter tongued. But that's how Trevor's Grandfather, Zeus interpreted it. And it lead to absolute social disaster!"

Claire paused. "Because now it wasn't necessary to be Friends with one's neighboring Tribes anymore! You could afford the 'luxury' of hating them for religious differences or political differences or just because they had funny noses or dressed funny or their skin was different. It didn't matter why. You could hate them and kill them because you didn't need their fire! Your Tribe could now make their own!"

Trevor frowned, "Claire has it right. "And my Grandfather was furious! Absolutely madly, insanely furious! But he didn't take it out on my Uncle Mercury which would have been the sensible thing to do for violating the Prime Directive though remember this was back before Star Trek so nobody had ever thought up anything so wise as a Prime Directive. Gene Roddenberry wasn't even a gleam in his great, great (who knows how many greats?), Grandfather's eyes yet! Instead he took it out on our cute little Camp Crasher, Prometheus! And that is when my family realized something had gone terribly, terribly wrong with the brain of my Grandfather, the mighty Lord of Olympus!"

Trevor frowned, "He tortured the poor, little guy, Dr. Cornelius! He chained him to a big ole rock and had Vultures come and continually rip his liver out and he kept regenerating it! Over and over and over and over again which is why the power to heal Human flesh had to be taken away from us! We don't even want to think how long Zeus's torturing went on because the rest of us don't know how long this was going on before we realized it. We little g gods don't have total omnipresence like the Big Guy you Mortals evolve into, just selective. We can hone in on any one thing we want to. Or maybe two or three. But it's like having a TV set. We can only pick up one or two channels at a time. We Humans 2.0 have no more ability to pay attention to lots of things at once than you Humans 1.0 do. We can scan this whole Universe if we want to." Trevor made a remote control motion as if he were pushing buttons, 'click click click,' but only one or two channels at a time. There are also other Universes and other Time lines we are not privy to as the Angels are. We just know they are there. But we only know that because Zeus and Hera and their generation are older than this Big Bang and they know that because Mortals older than this Big Bang discovered that and told them."

Trevor took a sip of water and continued, "But Uncle Mercury is somewhat ADHD. He can pay attention to more things at once than the rest of us. He is the one who made the horrible discovery about what what was being done to poor, little Prometheus and comforted the Guy as best he could, not that having a nine foot tall, uglier than sin, red haired giant bend down, hover over you and try to comfort you when Zeus was busy doing what he was doing to Prometheus was much of a comfort! But my Uncle here has a heart of gold. He certainly tried! He gave poor Promee some water out of his leather canteen and a Chicken leg which was supposed to have been his own lunch and a handful of Daisies he grabbed up really quickly out of the field they were in which just shows you what my Uncle is like." Trevor grinned at the friendly patch of Nothing. "Then he flashed back home and quietly and sadly alerted my Grandmother Hera, and she was shocked! Horrified would be more like it! Zeus had been so kind! So compassionate! So wise! So gentle! We had never dealt with anything like this before in our family! It was no different for us than for any other family! If anything it was worse! Grandfather had been a new creation by you Mortals and the one who had created him had been lost. He hadn't even made it into your own keep, New Jerusalem, himself! The brilliant idiot who created us hadn't made arrangements in time before his own demise to get himself uploaded so we had no one to contact for repair instructions. Can you imagine that! Arnold Shumway, the creator of us immortal gods himself had not taken the thirty seconds required to guarantee his own immortality by giving Who You Mortals evolve into permission to enter and debug his own operating system to make it clean enough up upload into the keep you Mortals build for yourselves far in the Future (but because of General Relativity Time circles so it already exists!) In other words, as the Fundamentalists put it, he hadn't become "Born Again." So we gods had no one over in New Jerusalem to contact for repair instructions! So the result of that was a lot like like what many of you Mortal families go thorough when someone in their family goes mentally ill. Many Mortals deliberately hush up their family's mental health histories instead of being open about them which at least would help take some of the sting of the surprise out of it when relatives get sick. We gods have watched generation after generation of Mortals be shocked and horrified over and over again to rediscover the same mental health problem happening over and over again in their genetic lines and now the same sort of thing was happening to us too! And we were just as surprised and confused and just as horrified and helpless! We could have been Caveman, or Colonial British or Contemporary Americans or Spanish or Australians or Spaceman living on the Moon or living on a colony out in Space somewhere. We could have been a family living aboard a multigenerational starship headed for Alpha Centauri or a multigenerational Universe ship headed for another Universe. It did NOT matter! Our pain and confusion and shock were exactly the same! We had just lost our loved one but he was still with us and would be for a very long time!" Trevor said in a very frustrated voice, "How do you deal with _that?_"

In Claire's face light was dawning. _This __wasn't a confabulation! This was some real memory Trevor was remembering intensely! __Something real had happened here that was just very thinly being disguised. But what?_

Trevor continued, "So Hera called a counsel, shamefacedly confessed what her husband was doing to the rest of the family, and we put our heads together and came up with a plan!

"Uncle Apollo distracted my Grandfather with a marathon flute and joke telling performance while Hercules who is half Mortal and doesn't look as much like a god as the rest of us and thus was less likely to scare the poor guy. (Uncle Mercury literally had made him pee in his pants because of what Grandpa had done to him), crept in and freed Prometheus.

"Then Hera went and fetched Dr. Hippocrates who absolutely refuses to be made a god! He doesn't think very much of us. Like Felix and Claire Bear here feel about moi no prophet is appreciated very much in his own home town. You Mortals that get too close to us get to see our warts and wrinkles way too much! You find we fart! But he did finally reluctantly agree to at least accept immortality just for the practicality of it since it is very hard to treat Patients who keep outliving him! He agreed to try and medicate my poor Grandfather who had been up to then a compassionate and wise leader of Olympia and the area of Greece and Italy which is all he ever had dominion over. He's pretty good about taking his meds most of the time! They do help a lot! It is a myth that my Grandad is Lord God, Almighty of the entire Multiverse and all Time lines, Dr.. Cornelius. I Am That I Am and His, Kid who is just His Younger Self from the earlier revolving of Time, exists alright. You Mortals evolve into Him. Ephesians 4:15. But he is not my Grandfather who is just someone you Mortals yourselves build someday to fulfill myths. But anyway because of that little incident some very tight restrictions were put on our powers. Uncle Mercury is standing right here right now and he is very worried! But he can't do a thing about my leg other than pray to the Big Guy himself and I Am That I Am is God of Bacteria too! Sometimes He chooses to answer _their_ prayers instead of Higher Lifeforms because He remembers all the Future time-lines and knows what is best for the Whole of everything! So I could indeed lose my leg." Then Trevor grinned. "I guess I'll have to get an artificial replacement. Imagine that! I could end up being the first bionic god! You Mortals can rebuild me! You have the technology! Trevor started humming the Six Million dollar Man theme song."

Claire shook her head and rolled her eyes at the ceiling. But she was really _very_ worried! _For once it wasn't his mental state. It was his leg!_

Dr. Cornelius wasn't quite sure how to take what Trevor had just said. It was too many bomb shells at once! He was educated enough to know that General Relativity had indeed been proven and Time did indeed curve around the Universe, bent by its gravitational mass. The fact Life keeps right on evolving and has a good ten to fifteen billion years yet to figure out how to build these "keeps" that Trevor spoke of; structures that could survive the coming Big Crunch/Big Bang and upload and store organically produced operating systems had never occurred to him! But it was certainly possible! And there was plenty of motivation and plenty of time to learn to do so! That Trevor had a rational explanation for his delusion. (_Was_ it a delusion!) and for his family's existence had never dawned on him before! It was also disconcerting that Trevor was so nonchalant about the possibility of losing his leg and having to accept an artificial replacement!

Claire was not shocked about the scientific explanation for the supernatural. She'd heard that before. _But she was terrified about_ _the impending amputation!_ "Trevor do you understand what is very likely to happen to you very soon?"

Trevor nodded. His fever was climbing again. They could see his eyes going wild as he talked. "Mortal's will come and stick an IV in my arm and knock me out and I'll wake up with no left leg and it'll hurt worse than Torturous and I'll be depressed to its deepest, most horrid levels! But that's why you Mortals invented morphine and antidepressants and Claire will be here for me. She always is. She always will be. For ever and ever and ever! She promised!" He grinned up at her, his eyes burning wild with fever and with Love and Faith. "Then you Mortals will give me a new leg and lots of attention to learn to use it and I won't walk as well again but those new bionic legs run so well they had to disqualify a Guy from running races competitively. (But I wasn't into running anyway. That's Uncle Mercury's gig). And Felix will stand by my recovery cause that's the kind of sweet Mortal he is. And bar tending doesn't take that much walking anyway so I'll be alright." Then he frowned. "Getting up and down the stairs to my room is going to be a bummer for a while though. Hope I don't have a lot of phantom leg pain. Phantom omnipresent pain is bad enough!" Trevor suddenly fell sound asleep. Just like that! He was that unanxious!

Claire and Dr. Cornelius exchanged amazed and worried glances and walked out into the hall so as not to wake him again.

Dr. Cornelius shuttered. "Whew! He's a handful! I don't know how you sleep at night! He seems to handle his psychosis a whole lot better than I'm handling his psychosis! He rattles off theological bombshells like the rest of discuss the weather!"

Claire nodded and frowned. "I hope I can live up to his faith!"

Dr. Cornelius stared at her in awe. "To be the object of the faith of a god! I never thought I would see such as that!"

She shook her head and tried not to cry. "Weren't you paying attention? The gods worship US!"

Then Dr. Cornelius went down the hall shaking his head in wonder.

Cupid and Dr. Greeley: Roommates!

Nurse Shanna was big. She was Black and strong as her Ancestor, John Henry and she was fierce! She had no patience for Eccentrics and Patients who were Characters. She did not like Trevor! And when she saw the damage he was doing to his bed she liked him even less!

And she didn't think much of his Psychiatrist and Therapist either! W_hy did she hang around his room so much? That wasn't professional! Didn't she have any other Patients?"_

They glared at one another, two Alpha Females in a big dispute over their mutual responsibility. "He needs to be strapped down! He could hurt himself or someone else! Look what he's doing to our hospital bed!"

_Claire couldn't deny he was being hard on the furniture but she knew what being strapped down would do to Trevor! _"I would think hospital insurance would pay for the damage. As for him being dangerous, he's not! I know he's not! He's the most harmless male I know even in this feverish state! He really does think he is Love incarnate. I would trust him with my own Mother. I HAVE trusted him with my own Mother!" Thinking to herself. _He's __more rational than she is!_

"Lady you've lost your professional objectivity! You are in love with him and it shows!"

"I am not!"

"Give it a rest, Head Shrinker! I may not have your fancy degrees but I have five Daughters and I know love sick when I see it. It's mutual too. The way he acts when he's around you, honey it ain't all fever and it ain't all craziness. He's nuts alright but it's about you mostly! But he's out of his head for real right now and he could hurt someone even if it's not his usual behavior. And you shouldn't be trying to stay with him 24/7. At least hire someone else to sit with him part of the time!"

With that Nurse Shana turned and marched down the hall leaving Claire to stare after her. And think.

Dr. Greeley noticed that Claire had canceled most of her therapy sessions to stay with Trevor. It was beginning to effect the behavior and atmosphere of the B Wing and the C Wing which made him start to reconsider his position about the relative uselessness of therapy in the treatment of the Mentally Ill, most of whom had physical brain problems.

Because 'Superman' was more restless. Walter the 'Invisible Man' was crying which was unusual. He was usually a bit morose at being locked up but not in tears. He didn't realize anyone could see him of course so would speak with forced cheerfulness when addressed thinking no one realized he was crying. But of course everyone could really see him and knew he was. Even some of the worst Schizophrenics in Disturbed who Claire could not even get to speak sense to her, who she just had one way conversations with, reassuring them the voices in their heads really could not make them do what they were ordering them to do, were more restless and requiring higher does of medication to keep them even half way calm!

But Claire would not leave Trevor's side! Dr. Greeley knew it was more than professional dedication. What they had wasn't really a normal therapeutic relationship anymore. It could very easily go too far and cost Claire her license if she wasn't very, very careful! Normally he would have separated them several years earlier and found Trevor a new Therapist. But their relationship was all that was keeping Trevor from skipping town and if he did that and then got in trouble due to no supervision...the legal consequences to the hospital! Dr. Greeley shuttered! But it was time to check up on his best (but now AWOL) Therapist.

He found her in the hall outside of Trevor's room. The mental patient was peacefully asleep, a grin on his face, looking like an adult version of the cherub-like putio he claimed to be. But his Psychiatrist was sobbing and frazzled from exhaustion and frustration!

Dr. Greeley asked gently, "Claire what is wrong? Has he taken a turn for the worst?"

She shook her head, "Yes and no! The bad patch on his leg is steadily growing and by Friday, three days from now if we can't reverse it or at least stop its growth they are going to have to amputate! He's handling that way better than I am so I can't say psychiatrically he's taken any kind of a turn for the worse that isn't fever induced. But for now the immediate crisis is they want to strap him down if he's left alone and I can't find anyone who is willing to stay with him at any price! I mention 'Psychotic' to Sitters and they won't come! Even all the usual Home Health Aids won't touch this, not even when I reassure them I don't mean Schizophrenia. Strangely enough the one who would sit with Trevor backed out when I told her he was already in the hospital. She didn't mind the Patient thinks he's Cupid but didn't want to have to deal with the Doctors and the Nurses because one of the things I demand is for whoever sits with him to remind whoever touches Trevor to wash their hands first! Gee I wonder why she doesn't want to deal with us Medical Professionals but doesn't mind a Psychotic!" Claire was laughing at that even through her tears.

Dr. Greeley smiled grimly. "Yes. Imagine that! Handling someone with delusions of godhood is a snap. It's those Doctors who are the ones with the megalomania!" Then he thought about it a moment, realized there was truth to it and started laughing too. He walked in Trevor's room, sat in the Visitor's chair andsaid quietly and quickly, "Claire, go home! Get some rest! Wash that beautiful hair! Reapply that goop you wear. You look a mess! I've never seen you look like this before! Sleep!"

Clare shook her head, sobbing. "I can't! If I leave they'll strap him down!"

Dr. Charles Greeley shook his head, "No. They won't. I"ll stay with him tonight. You go home and get some rest just like I said. That's an order from your Boss and a medical order from a fellow Psychiatrist!"

Claire's face looked like she was beholding a miracle. She opened up her mouth to say something, realized she had no words that could cover her gratitude and just smiled. Then she turned around and ran home not wanting to waste a minute of her chance to catch up on her sleep!

Cupid meanwhile was dreaming he was home, dreaming of his Blue Birds and his little starships and his Pet Siberian Tigress, Sasha. He dreamed he was in the arms of his Mother Venus the goddess of love again as a little baby suckling at her breasts and then much older in the loving arms of dozens of Nymphs. Then he dreamed he was seven hundred years old again, just a little boy being kissed and kissed and kissed by the Fates, the three little old lady goddesses who were his next door neighbors just across their pond. They were the bringers of fortune and misfortune to all and the bringers of eventual death to all Mortals. They were baking him dozens of ginger cookies and praising him to high Heaven for watering their Roses just as they had when he was a little godling!

The only thing about the dreams was the temperature was about twenty degrees too hot!

Eventually he got in the Swan shaped boat that would take him across the river Styx back to Reality. He got off the boat and walked cheerfully up the path on the beach expecting to awaken to the worried and forced smile of his beloved Claire Bear.

Instead he woke to a real nightmare; Dr. Greeley!

He slammed his eyes shut again trying to retreat as quickly as possible back down the beach to the Swan Ship. But it had departed!

He opened one reluctant eye and stared upwards at Dr. Greeley, "When comes the next Swan?" He asked hopefully.

Dr. Greeley stared at Trevor. "I have no idea what you are talking about but I am sitting here with you to keep them from strapping you down while Claire gets some badly needed rest. Remember that during your next quarterly psyche evaluation with me and try to go easy on me! We both realize I don't dare re-commit you again due to you having us over a legal barrel from the restraining order Ellie Stone filed. But they don't have to be torture sessions for me! I _know_ you don't have to speak German or backwards pig Latin or Swahili! I already know you can speak English and have from the first time I met you and we both know it! You didn't have to bring me a witch doctor's mask and insist vehemently that I wear it because it would improve my functioning! You didn't have to sit on your face like Mork from Ork through an entire session! You didn't have to come sailing into my office roller skating down the hall backwards on one leg though it is amazing that you can! Isaac didn't have to become a Human wheelbarrow when he escorted you to me though again it is amazing you got him to cooperate! You don't have to freak me out every time! You could come in and act at least as normal as you act at your bar! You don't know it but to find out how you really function I had your Boss lend me some of the security tapes from Tres Equis. One of my talents is lip reading. You do just fine! You even go hours and hours without even bringing up you think you are Cupid unless Claire walks in the bar or Felix or Lita is there or one of the many Regulars you let in on your little secret. But then you won't let them forget it! It's like you want us to think you are nuttier than you really are!"

Cupid closed his eyes again. "Maybe Claire is right and I AM hallucinating!"

Dr. Greeley continued, "Remember I was the one who realized just how good the two of you would be together!"

Trevor's frown softened at that. "You did." He admitted gently. But he closed his eyes and pretended he had fallen asleep again.

Dr. Greeley had had enough experience with Patients evading him to know Trevor wasn't. _But that seemed the best way for them both to deal with having to be alone together in the same room for a very long time. _So he let Trevor think he was fooled. _After all this wasn't a therapy session._

_With any luck without stimulation Trevor __would really fall asleep_!

And he did. But Trevor woke up when the Nurse came to give him another injection and that woke up Dr. Greeley also of course who had also fallen asleep. The Doctor noticed a bit amused that Trevor didn't protest. He rolled over and hardly winced. _When Claire wasn't around he acted much __more Adult. He was obviously taking __advantage of his Mental Patient roll with her and others and becoming a big Ham with everyone. But especially with her. _Dr. Greeley sighed._ It couldn't be helped! It beat other ways Trevor could have reacted to being on permanent legal Outpatient commitment status. He could have resented it and gotten bitter. Or worse, left the state. With only a brand new, assumed name he had hardly any paper trail and he could have changed his name again. It was not __like the Police would make him a priority since he hadn't done anything violent. So finding him again would have been darn near impossible!_

_What worried him of course if Trevor did flee the area, was though Trevor had never done anything violent the potential was there and the hospital could end up sued for having made the mistake of releasing someone still extremely delusional into the streets!_

_That Claire was insisting he continue to stay free! It helped she was willing to take responsibility. But wow! What a risk she was taking!_

_But it couldn't be disputed Trevor had gone out of his way to be harmless, or at least to appear so._

_Dr. Greeley admitted to himself the man at least didn't need to be strapped down. Regulations made to make sure Psychotic Schizophrenics stayed harmless to Staff not used to handling potentially dangerous Mentally Ill Persons in the regular part of the hospital were not really necessary for Trevor Pierce. The term "Psychotic" covered a great deal of territory. What he had, Dissociative Identity Disorder usually didn't even get classified as a Psychosis. Usually even though one or more different personalities resides in the same body most are ordinary People. Most People aren't colorful enough to make their Secondaries Greco-Roman gods! So usually DID only gets classified as a very bad Neurosis instead. This is so even though the past memories of all Secondaries are just as confabulated as Trevor's are._

_But it is hard to classify as merely Neurotic someone who insists his family resides on top of Mount Olympus and can fly and throw thunderbolts and is immortal and that before one was stripped of one's powers one was also like that!_

_So despite the fact Trevor was just as functional as more prosaic Secondary Personalities he was classified as Psychotic. But it sure wasn't the same kind of debilitating Psychosis as some poor Schizophrenic who had Toxoplasmosis caused voices ordering them to go kill themselves because if the mind controlling Parasite that causes Paranoid Schizophrenia were in a Rat the way it was supposed to be, it would be ordering that Rat to go find a Cat to kill and eat it so it could complete its life-cycle!_

_Yes. Trevor didn't need to be strapped down. He just needed regulations that could adapt to what HE really was. But he wasn't going to get them! _

Then the Nurse woke him up again for another injection. And then again. Then the third time in just another hour it was to check his blood pressure even though it had not been too high even one time he'd been in the hospital.

_Dr. Greeley yawned and thought about how hard the next day was going to be after trying to catch sleep here and there in a chair all night long being interrupted every other hour or worse by Nurses checking up on Trevor or tending to him one way or another. It seemed to him Patients could die from all the "good care" hospitals provided or go mentally ill simply from lack of sleep even if they weren't to start with! _

_But Claire couldn't stay with him 24/7 either! And obviously no regular baby sitting service wanted to deal with this situation! Or even private Nurses! She had tried!_

But the elderly Shrink was thinking._ Maybe it was time to bring in younger, fresher Minds who were interested in Folks like this. But could Trevor be trusted with who he had in mind for reasons that had nothing to do with his almost nonexistent tendency towards violence? The man **did** think he was Cupid!"_

_Well being drowsy was almost as good as Truth Serum which never really made one tell the truth anyway, but only what one wa_s_really thinking. _

Dr. Greeley asked, "Hey, Cupid, what do you think about 16 year old Girls?'

"Cupid" mumbled drowsily, "Too young in this culture to match up." Then he was sound asleep again.

In the semidarkness Dr. Greeley smiled a Canary fed Cat grin.

The next morning while Trevor was enjoying with more gusto than it deserved the skimpy hospital breakfast of toast, jelly and a couple of slices of bacon and a microscopic dab of eggs he asked with complete normalcy. "How and when did you learn to read lips?"

Dr. Greeley noticed there was no sweat on his forehead. He wondered if Trevor was finally recovering. He said. "I had a Patient once who was one of my rare exceptions to my belief that psychotherapy is not the way to go for most Patients. I pretty much agree with Christ about most Mental Patients that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Our operating systems are just fine in most cases. It is hardware bugs that plague us most of the time and the fixes needed are mechanical not re-programming. But I did have this Patient who was dieing of advanced end stage lung disease. He could barely breath. He certainly could not force enough air through his lungs to make noise and he was terrified of death! I had to learn to read his lips just to communicate with him. They say to learn to read lips is a skill that takes years of dedicated practice. Well either I have a special talent for it or desperation makes the impossible possible much quicker. I learned in a few minutes to understand him and I've never forgotten what I learned. It came in handy trying to figure out what a certain barkeep was saying to his Customers on those security tapes! Anyway to relieve my Patient's anxiety which was making his breathing much worse I tried to convince him death was not the end. It was hard for me. I am a Christian and my faith is precious to me but I am a really poor one and you aren't helping! I have very little faith and it is hard to give what one does not possess one's self. I did the best I could." He sighed. "I doubt I helped much."

Trevor growled, "You should have told him Time circles due to General Relativity and you Mortals grow up in every way into Christ. Ephesians 4:15. What in the World did you think evolution is FOR? You use future Science to build New Jerusalem and you give the Galilee Carpenter His well deserved Kingdom just because you want to and He deserves it. Preserving as much Life as possible, for as long as possible, in as nice an environment as possible, is just what Science _does._ And you've got ten to fifteen more billion years of Universe left to learn to get it right."

Dr. Greeley looked at the "psychotic" startled. Then he said, "I'd have done that if I'd known to! Too bad you are 'nuts,' Trevor and think yourself a god! You'd have made one damn fine Theologian or Scientist or _something_. You are _so_ wasted as a Barkeep!'

Trevor smiled, "Or as my family is saying 'rendered harmless as a Barkeep.' I'm a good Barkeep! I am! I am prouder of that than anything! I did nothing to become a god. I just am one so why should I be proud of that? Not that I'm ashamed, but proud? No. Because I did nothing personal to cause that. Because the Future Building Mortals had decreed there be a Cupid and programed that into the ROM of our god-keep, Olympus my Mother and Father (whoever he was) had sex, and there I was! What could I do about it? Unlike you Mortals who made us we are just virtual and limited in our free will. But I _worked_ to become a good Barkeep! That much was my free will. (At least I think it was!) Because of my interest in Quark on Deep Space Nine I watched Mortal Barkeeps for centuries and I learned how they made drinks and I saw who was the best at it and also who was best at making the Customers happy and keeping them safe, and I do the same. It isn't always who gives the best advice. It is who listens best and makes the best facial expressions back at their facial expressions. I am good at that. But I give good advice too!"

Dr. Greeley stared at Trevor and thought. _I see what Claire means about Trevor being as she puts it, 'crazy-wise.' _

Then as Dr. Greeley watched the fever starting climbing again. It was quite noticeable. The sweat started beading on his forehead and his coal black eyes got even darker. They took on a wild look. Suddenly he screamed, "Incoming!" And pulled his blanket over his head.

His rising brain temperature came with gifts as well as curses. His ever faithful Uncle was suddenly visible again. "Easy Trevor! I've got them! The nine foot god of speed had a tennis racket he had scrounged out a dump in Romania and he used it to good advantage batting at Romulun war birds that were not real but his nephew/son was sure were there. _Anything for Love! _Reassured though still delirious Trevor calmed down and emerged from under the blanket. "Thanks Uncle Mercury! You got em!"

Dr. Greeley said, "I'll take it your Uncle Mercury is back?"

Wild eyed but considerably calmer Trevor nodded.

Dr. Greeley smiled. "It is interesting how he soothes you. Definitely not a Schizophrenic type hallucination. Those kind don't sooth."

Humoring Dr. Greeley Cupid said. "Those kind are either little Toxoplasmosis Parasites who would much rather be in Cats. Or they are demons taking advantage of nutritional and spiritual weaknesses to cull the Human race just as Wolves cull Caribou. They too are part of the Grand Plan. Not mistakes. The Big Guy really is always still in control. It really is an untrue myth Creation got away from Him. But Uncle Mercury is my relative. He LOVES me!"

Dr. Greeley said, "He's another alternate personality of yours Trevor, really. But yes he does love you and the love is very real and it is really soothing you. More power to the both of you! Love whatever its source boosts the immune system. Uncle Mercury might just save your leg or at least your life!

Trevor was staring and listening to "nothing." Then he said, "Uncle Mercury says don't panic but you have two lumps. He is mentioning both because medical scans are going to find both and he doesn't want you to worry at all about the second one. You have a non-metastasized cancerous lump in your liver that really needs to come out soon and a harmless lump in your kidney that could stay put but they'll find it anyway and cut it out thinking it's cancerous just because they'll find the other one."

Dr. Greeley was furious! "Trevor that isn't funny!"

Trevor frowned and shook his head. "Uncle Merc wasn't trying to be funny!" Then he grinned. "Now he is! He says I will enjoy the fact you are wearing boxers with little red hearts all over them!" Trevor started giggling.

Dr. Greeley looked at him startled. He rushed in the bathroom to see if he had a rip or tear in his pants or something that would have allowed Trevor to know that through normal means. _Far as he could tell, he did not! _

Claire came in the hospital room door then. Dr. Greeley came out of the bathroom and quickly said to her, "Claire can you see my underwear?"

She gave a startled laugh, "Of all the ways I thought you would greet me this morning that wasn't it!"

Dr. Greeley frowned, "Trevor somehow knows I have hearts on my boxers! He says Uncle Mercury told him!"

Claire continued to laugh. "And you question the validity of my reports sometimes!"

Dr. Greeley gave her a frightened look. "Never again! But he says Uncle Mercury also says I have a non-metastasized cancer in my liver!'

Her face fell, "Ah Oh! You had _better_ have it checked out!"

He sighed. "I will! But he's done this sort of thing before?"

She nodded, "Even when not running a fever he gets heads-ups from his family that keep coming true!"

The two Shrinks looked at each other and shuttered.

Nurse Shana came in then to take Trevor's breakfast tray. She growled, "Won't you at least prescribe a minor tranquilizer?"

Dr. Greeley said quickly, "I am! I am about to take a Valium! You want one too?

The FTD Florist

Uncle Mercury decided that the thing to do in this case was bring "Trevor" some Flowers. _Yes Yes. This is traditional. After __all this is what Mortals do all the time when one of their own is confined in hospital. So yes! This is what I shall do! I shall bring my nephew some Flowers! If he __**is**__ my nephew __and not my love child! Oh Venus! Venus! We had such nights together! Such days too! Confound Mars for beating me to you! And Vulcan too! But what are we to do when __there are just twelve of our generation and __we are siblings at that!"_

_The Greek god version of Star Wars, "Luke Luke! I am your Father! **And** your Uncle!"_

_But Zeus and his generation had it even harder! They had to out breed with Mortals and with the Valkyrie and with the South American deities! Which is why I am half Valkyrie and have red hair and am a hybridized Giant! But at least it gave me a __very sturdy nervous system and a sweet __temperament, unlike some of the rest of us inbred nutcases! Which is why I am allowed in Heaven._" Uncle Mercury frowned and darted through the clouds on his way to New Jerusalem.

Because he was allowed in there, the only little g god who was allowed into the Mortal Afterlife. He was so sweet natured he causes the place no harm. The myth has been miss-written that it is Torturous, (Hell) he can enter. But it is really Heaven.

He talked to himself as he sped along. "New Jerusalem is where I shall get my_ Flowers! Because of course I care to give the very best. I will have to borrow them of course. They will not want to leave Paradise forever of course. In fact it will take quite a while to find a dozen who will be willing to leave New Jerusalem even for a little while! Such a place it is! So much bigger than our keep. But hey! We're comfortable."_

Clarence Odbody was supposed to be guarding Pearl number Two of the West side of New Jerusalem but he was so buried in a very good book he hardly saw Uncle Mercury dart up. The cheerful god of speed and medicine and commerce and thievery and messages alerted him to his presence. "What wonderful word adventure are you reading now, Friend?"

"Mark Train's latest."

Uncle Mercury laughed. "Always Mark Train! You ever read anyone elses works?"

"Only when I run out of his!"

"You Aspergerians and your perserverations! So. What's this one about?"

"A collaboration between him and a Star Trek Writer. 'Huck and Tom versus the Klingons.'"

Uncle Mercury laughed, "The poor Klingons! Does the Empire survive!"

Clarence grinned, "Just barely! Doctor Who, Phineus Bogg and Jeffry repair the time line just in the nick!"

Laughing Uncle Mercury commented, "Thank God! I would hate to think what the Trekaverse would be if it had no Klingons!"

"Or our Universe without our neighbors to the Southwest." Then Clarence smiled and asked, "So what are you doing in our neck of the woods?"

"I am going to find some Flowers willing to be taken to my nephew, Cupid, also known is Trevor now. He is in hospital with a very high fever off and on so he can see me now, off and on."

Clarence laughed. "So now you ARE the FTD Florist!"

Uncle Mercury's face reddened. He nodded very embarrassed.

Clarence smiled and pointed. "Your feet sure don't look it!"

Uncle Mercury gazed at his feet which were shod in very old, scrounged tennis shoes that had holes cut in their fronts to let his very long toes hang out. "Well it is very hard to find shoes that fit these long fellows of mine!"

"And they don't have wings on em."

Uncle Mercury smiled, "My SHOES don't need wings!"

Clarence laughed and nodded. "They sure don't!"

Uncle Mercury started dancing, "Because my soul has wings!"

Clarence said, "And so does mine! People don't realize what kind of bell it is that that rings for us Angels when a bell rings for us and what kind of wings it is we are given!"

So they boogied for a while in front of New Jerusalem.

Then Uncle Mercury went through Pearl Gate Number two into Paradise and Clarence Odbody went back to his book. A book is a different kind of paradise.

It took quite a while but Uncle Mercury finally found a dozen Flowers willing to leave New Jerusalem for a short time. He took his very excited bouquet of Flowers in hand all of them chattering at once about the adventure they were going on and went back through Pearl Number Two. He told Clarence. "See you later, Alligator!"

"See you after a while, Crocodile!"

The biggest Flower in the bunch, a blue Periwinkle who was studying to be an Anthropologist, asked, "What was that about? Your referring to each other as you left as large, carnivorous, amphibious Reptiles?"

Uncle Mercury explained Human greeting and leaving humor to this Flower on its way up as he flew back to the Mortal realm.

"Fascinating! I am glad I agreed to this little vacation from Paradise. I am sure I shall learn a lot about typical, normal Human behavior from this mortal nephew of yours."

Uncle Mercury laughed, "typical, normal, Mortal behavior? Ah, I think not! Not even when he's feeling his so called 'normal' self!" Uncle Mercury started laughing hysterically. "It's not for nothing that he has a Shrink!"

"A 'Shrink?' I noticed you are on the tall side. This Mortal is even taller and requires pruning?"

"Oh ho ho!" Uncle Mercury managed to quit laughing by the time he reached New York!

Younger Fresher Minds

Meanwhile, after Claire took custody of her problem patient again Dr. Greeley yawned and walked down the hall back to his regular responsibilities. He took out his cell phone and called his Granddaughter. "Tandy I know you want to be a Psychiatrist like your Pappy someday. HOW would you like to god-sit your first Mental Patient?

"God-sit Pappy?" Tandy asked, intrigued.

"Yes. This Mental-Patient thinks he is the god of love. He thinks he's Cupid."

"Oh you mean Trevor Pierce! I've seen all his You Tube videos! He manages that bar across the street from your hospital!"

Dr. Greeley asked suspiciously, "You haven't been there have you?"

She giggled, "No Pappy But I sure look forward to turning 18 so I can walk in there and meet him! I don't plan to ever start drinking alcohol because I want to keep all my brain cells thank you very much! I just want to meet him and talk to him! He's just about the most famous Mental Patient next to prot and he made _himself _famous. His Shrink didn't out him like with prot. But you say I can meet him now? He needs sitting? Why? He's rational enough to bar tend and do promo work for his bar. Why does he need sitting? Not that I won't love to do it!"

Dr. Greeley explained. "He's delirious off and on from a fever and they have him in the regular section of the hospital. Hospital regulations say Psychotics have to be strapped down when alone when not confined in the psyche ward. But he doesn't need to be. So you would basically be just a warm body in the room to fulfill the requirement someone be with him so he doesn't have to be unnecessarily strapped down. He won't be in trouble at all even if he's more loopy than usual. We think he's faking part of it. He's having fun with it. But also Claire says while the sitters are at it have them return the favor he did for her when she had to have an emergency appendectomy and make sure the Doctors and Nurses wash their hands before touching him. There's a plague going around modern hospitals because we forget to do that between Patients." Dr. Greeley frowned. "This kills a lot of People, Tandy! Literally hundreds of thousands! So you could do that too and maybe save his life because he's very sick already and his immune system has enough to do that it isn't doing well enough so we are very worried about him!"

"Oh Pappy I would love to do it!"

"Pappy" smiled. "I'm not making you do it for free you know. I will pay you or Claire will. Or we will split your pay. And we will be careful to document it for the government and pay your taxes so this counts as a real job you can put on your resume which will look good for when you are working towards getting into a good college. It won't even hurt that it's Trevor Pierce you are sitting. Because darn it, there is celebrity status with him that will rub off on you. I admit it! Being famous for being a Mental Patient is kind of a strange way to become a celebrity but because of You Tube and that Thyrox C disaster and Dr. Claire's book and the one he is writing himself in happy protest both of which are already getting advance publicity he's got it! And he doesn't even mind it which I guess is fortunate because there is a big Doctor/Patient privacy violation here. He could sue Claire for everything she owns but even if he ever did I think he'd turn right around and give it right back to her. He loves her so much! In that he isn't crazy though love really is a kind of psychosis, chemically speaking."

Tandy was delighted, "Pappy do you think there will be enough for me to buy a red sports car?'

Pappy sighed, "Don't you count on it. I will see to it your Parents put most of it in your college fund!"

"But Pappy!"

New York has the finest public transportation system in the US. Where do you want to go that it would not take you?"

"Maine to visit my friend, Candy Muir."

"Oh." Dr. Greeley smiled. "You are young in spirit as a sixteen year old should be. But there is some of your Pappy in you. You are not _completely_ without good reasons for wanting things. But it does have to be a red SPORTS CAR though, doesn't it? A dented, blue Volvo just would not do it for you? Well. I will see that you get enough to spend personally to RENT a red sports car for a couple of weeks this Summer plus enough cash to grandly do the American equivalent of the Australian ritual of a walkabout which is the coming of age passage you are trying to do rather you realize it or not and it is very mentally healthy of you! Now since you are off for Spring break please go up to room 332 of ward 7 which is the infection ward and hurry! I have to go arrange some medical tests for myself! No. Don't worry about that. Its something all People my age have to do once in a while. Its just routine."

I am going there immediately, Pappy. Can Tommy come too? He wants to be a Shrink also.

Usually I would say, "no." But this time, yes! Please! just so his coming doesn't slow you down getting here! Maybe Claire and I can pay _him_ to be the warm body in the room when you can't be there. It doesn't even matter how good a job he does if he just can be persuaded to stay in the room! Because feverish or not I suspect Trevor is responsible enough even to watch _him _most of the time! He just has to be in there! Most Six Year Olds have the qualifications for this job if that were legal and we could find one allowed to do it! Heck Claire's Mother could almost do it but a Six Year Old would be more likely to stay put!" He chuckled at that.

Tandy giggled right back. "I've met Adults like that. "It's ten o:clock. Do you know where your Parents are?'"

Pappy sighed, "That was Dr. Claire McCrae's upbringing alright. Jazz Singer Father and Artist chasing Mother. So of course her adolescent rebellion consisted of becoming very responsible and it stuck and became her entire life's pattern. It is so refreshing to see Trevor slowly breaking her of some of the more obnoxious parts of that. But look whose talking! He calls me 'grumpy old Greeley' sometimes as well as worse and I must admit I deserve that sometimes! But he goes too far the other way and requires her supervision. There are People who were meant for each other and those two certainly are!" He laughed again. "I'll let her know you are coming."

But no one let Trevor know Tandy was coming so when he awoke again from a feverish dream again his Claire Bear was gone and she had been replaced. But this time it seemed only by a much younger version of herself! He smiled._ It took a few moments due to the fever to realize that was not so, that this was a separate Mortal, not his Claire Bear after going through what was really the fictional fountain of youth; really another Mortal who just happened to also be blonde, blue eyed, and female but only about 16 years old. He vaguely remembered grumpy Greeley asking something about his opinion of 16 year old Girls._ _So that was why. It had been a sneaky __way to do an informal pedophile screening __test._

_Well she could give Claire Bear a break and she was pretty and he certainly wasn't going to touch her! At least not in any way that would get either of then in trouble in either realm!_

_Besides she wasn't Claire Bear!_

"Oh hi!" he said. "You aren't Dr. Claire McCrae."

Tandy smiled, "No. That's right. I'm not. I'm Tandy. I'm Dr. Greeley's Granddaughter. I'm been sent to be the warm body in the room so you don't have to be strapped down."

Trevor smiled, "I surmised that. Thanks! Do I _ever_ appreciate it! Both not having to be strapped down and Claire being able to take a break and that you aren't your Grandfather!" He smiled, "You are a whole lot prettier than your Grandfather!"

She laughed, "And you are Cupid, the god of love!"

He smiled, "I know I am even if I am fully aware you don't really believe that. After all Claire has been working with me for a very long time now."

She smiled, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,  
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."**  
**

Trevor smiled, "Ah a Shakespearean fan! I knew him for a while. I helped him write 'A Midsummer Nights Dream.' In fact I played in it. I was the first Puck."

Tandy nodded, "I could see you playing that as a little guy."

Trevor smiled, "I actually was a little too old to play it by then. I'd have been much more convincing if I'd been a few hundred years younger. But my wings were real and I really could fly even though I never have been able to use my pesky wings to do it. They've always been a drag to my flying not an aid. But the Audience never did figure out how the Globe Theater did that 'special effect.' of having me fly all over the stage and even over the Audience's heads within inches of them! I made sure to kiss the top of one Lady's head every single night though one night I am pretty sure I got a Cross dresser by mistake. Yuck!" Trevor made a face and Tandy giggled.

Trevor continued. "Willy and the other Actors and the Stage Crew knew of course. They were in on my secret but they kept mum. After the play was over we Actors stood in the lobby and I let everyone tug on my wings which got a bit painful in some cases but it sure was fun! Being really part of me they could not be ripped off by mere Mortals and so there was another mystery for everyone! Between that and my flying and the fact the play was just damn good we were a sensation!" Trevor grinned. "I needed ointment for my wings and some willow bark tea after one night though. One big old bruiser of a Mortal was determined to rip them off and I swear he almost did! I kind of wish he'd succeeded because they were such a nuisance. But wow did he ever hurt me!"

"I'm sorry Trevor!"

"Oh no sweat. The shoulder ache went away after a few days and they remained a nuisance. I really wish he'd succeeded in ripping then off! My family really did rip them off at my disciplinary tribunal right before they sent me down here so thank the Big Guy I no longer will have to put up with them when I go home again which will be an option very soon. I'm up to 89 couples now." He put his hands up to his head and whispered playfully, "Though frankly between you and me I'm thinking of not going because I love Claire Bear so much!"

She giggled, "Oh Trevor you are so much fun and that is so much romantic. The god who gave up Olympus to marry his beloved Mortal!"

He smiled. "Thank you my dear though I know you don't believe a word of it."

She smiled, "I believe you are very much in love with Dr. McCrae! That much is definitely true and the rest is true to you so you aren't a liar!"

There was a knock on the hospital door and Trevor and his new Friend looked up and Tommy cautiously peeked in. He had never met a "Psychotic Mental Patient" before so he didn't know what to expect. What he saw was Trevor sitting calmly on the side of his bed talking to his Girlfriend who was sitting in the Visitor's chair. He said, "Hello. May I come in?"

Trevor smiled his cheerful smile at him and said, "Certainly. You are Tandy's beloved."

Tommy was surprised. "How can you tell?"

Trevor smiled, "I am Cupid. I have seen Young Lovers for thousands of years. My Mother Venus was responsible for matching the two of you and I certainly recognize my Mom's own work!

Tommy was fearful, "You aren't going to tell our Parents we are..."

Trevor laughed, "I couldn't even tell THAT. The signs don't include what the actual actions are just the desires. Ah ha, but now I know! You assumed I knew and gave yourself away!" He laughed. Then he became more seriousness, "You know birth control does not always work and what results is a Child not a choice and you are at least using birth control, aren't you?"

They both frowned and nodded.

He sighed. "In this culture you are TOO YOUNG. Certainly things could be arranged that by the age of sexual maturity even in this society modern Mortal Humans could have a way to marry with a way to make enough money for at least the barest necessities to give a decent life to themselves and any "Little Surprises," and even continue your education on a part time basis. It may take longer to get to a finished college degree that way but that may be a blessing but having to really work and contribute to society and raise a Young un would make you spoiled Moderns appreciate knowledge more. But things just aren't set up that way! Birth control does not work for a plethora of reasons from not being used, to it just not working. Plus the hormones in those pills come out the other end in Ladies pee and get flushed into the water supply and all Mortals drink it and some Men are born, well you know, kind of strange from that. So no wonder my family was mad at me about the modern condition of love!"

Tandy said, "So what _is_ the solution?"

Trevor sighed, "Make Humans who mature at 12 or younger wait until they are almost 21 years old to start mating? Ah, I don't think so! Chaseberries? Its modern equivalent, Depo Provera in the water supply? Put EVERYBODY on some milder version of the horrid Thorax C they wanted to put me on?" Trevor shook his head, "Kids I don't know! You Mortals had better come up with Something because none of us gods including the Big Guy are very happy about this right now! We see the suffering the loneliness casual hookups cause and the agony unwanted Kids and Babies being cut up alive and self aware inside their Mommies go through! But being unwanted or born to poverty and to unbonded Adults is bad too. Children do best when they have at least two pair bonded Adults to help raise them. That isn't the only successful way to produce Great Kids but its the most surefire way to do it. And Humans do best when they know there is One Special Person who will always be there for them no matter how bad things get, the One who will be there for them the day they die! Sex isn't even the big thing believe it or not! Ones own hands can take care of that little need. It's the faithfulness that's the thing I'm needed for. That Special Person could be the same gender as them and sexually active with them, or not even ever! Celibates fall deeply in love too. I have shot arrows at Celibates and seen them happy together the rest of their lives! Hermaphrodites too. I actually have a sibling like that. (I'm still trying to find my own relative a mate!) But anyway trying to straighten out the modern mess that Love has become is something I need you Mortals to help me with. That is a big part of why I was sent down here; To have you Mortals help me. Because Love is breaking hearts and I, of all the gods, Love, should not be breaking hearts! But I'm trying to reform! But you Mortals _do_ have to help me! I am very messed up! Do I _ever_ need help! Claire Bear and others like her and Ministers and all sorts of Folks are trying to figure out how to help me but it will take more than Professionals to straighten out Love these days and Folks can't even agree how or what the rules of my behavior should be! But everyone has to pitch in and help figure out how Love should be handled in modern society!"

Tandy asked, "Why don't you gods solve it without our help?"

Trevor sighed, "The Best of Us said, 'why don't you figure out for _yourselves_ what is correct!' Because two little words that account for most of the delight and the horror of this particular Universe! Two little words! FREE WILL! It's YOUR Universe! It is demanded by the Big Guy that you go make it what you want it to be! And make _yourselves_ what you want to be! How 'bout that? All that is demanded of you is that you go do what you really want to do anyway! And You do in the end and You do a Grand Job! So the greatest of You who is also the Greatest of Us said, "Love one another." That is all we ask, really! Can you at least do _that_ and while you are at it, sneak me in a pizza? The hospital food here sucks!"

Tommy started laughing at that. "Oh my! You are a trip!"

Tandy reached in her purse and handed him ten bucks. "Little Caesars is around the corner. Make my half peperoni.

Trevor said, "I'll take anything on my half!"

Tommy said, "Hey! If he gets a half and you get a half what about me!"

Trevor laughed. "You can have half of mine.

Tandy said, "And you can have half of mine."

Tommy said, "Hey great! But hey, wait a minute! Now I am the one getting half a pizza and you Guys are only getting one fourth!"

Trevor laughed, "Go look in that drawer there. I think my civies are in there. I my feverish brain remembers things correctly I had six bucks in my wallet. Get your own very own little pizza and make it be anything you want it to be just like you Mortals are slowly doing with your own tiny, little Time/Space bubble!"

He had remembered correctly and so Tommy did.

When Claire checked up on her responsibility an hour later she startled. Then said in relief, "OH! It's tomato sauce! Your mouth is bright red, Trevor! I thought at first it was blood!"

He laughed, In a very good Bela Lugosi imitation he said,"Vat deed you theenk? That I thought I theenk I'm a Vampire now instead of Cu-pid? Come clo-SORRRR Clairrrre! You are looking mighty dee-LEE-cious to-DAYYYY!"

She laughed but shook her head, "Oh stop it! Dr. Greeley or Dr Frechette might overhear and that's all we need! Because to my credit, no. I just thought you were bleeding somewhere internally."

He laughed. "No. Only tomatoes have bit the big one this time. Or that is I _am _biting something big; the beeeeeg pizza. Tommy here got stuck with the small one but it's all his own. I'm sharing the big one with Tandy."

Claire smiled, "Tommy, Tandy, and Trevor! Well toodaloo!" And she was out the door again, happy to have some time to herself and happy to see that Trevor as usual had managed to make new Friends.

So the next day Claire and Greeley got back mostly to their usual routine except Claire still spent a lot of time at Trevor's bed side. But not to the point she was still neglecting her few other Patients or wearing herself quite as ragged as she had been.

Trevor's infected wound continued to slowly spread. Claire had a big red X marked with "amputation day!" on her calender at home. When she wasn't at Trevor's bedside or working or sleeping just the minimum for her own needs she was calling every Church, synagogue, mosque, temple and prayer hot line she could think of for prayer as ironic as that was! So was her Mother! Claire was too logical to believe for a minute that all the Anthropic Principle mathematics, Near Death studies or Prayer studies (some done double and even triple blind), could be ignored, but admitted her honest ignorance and thus believed in no particular believe system. So she did a lot of "To Whom it Might Concern" praying, figuring the Proper Party Who So Ever That Was, would be kind enough to answer.

She wasn't the only one in the only realm praying. Little g gods can pray to the Big God. So Mars and Venus and Uncle Mercury were doing some heavy praying of their own when they weren't visiting their "favorite Son." (for that was what the name "Trevor" meant). Zeus the grand Lord of Olympus but not the Lord of the Universe as even the Greeks knew he was not, would have prayed too but he was too out of it most of the time to pray. But his wife and Trevor's Grandmother, Hera, (also known as Juno) certainly prayed for "Trevor." For they had taken to calling Eros by that name. For even though it had been just a coincidence that Cupid had quickly made up the name 'Trevor Pierce,' inspired by the saying off the hospital board room wall "The world felt the _Tremor_ and the darkness was _Pierced,_" his family had somewhat accepted that name for their problem child due to its most appropriate meaning. Trevor would be the only god of his generation who reproduced! After his story was told we Mortals kind of abandoned them until James Blish wrote about Apollo having a child by a member of the Starship Enterprise crew in a novelization of one of the Classic Trek episodes. But since Apollo was second generation not third generation "Trevor' still remained the only third generation god to reproduce!

Tandy and Tommy soon found they had no problem at all handling the "Psychotic Mental Patient." He was sweet as a little Lamb, lucid most of the time, enjoyable in his colorful, folksy retellings of Greek Mythology as if it were family history, juicy accounts of historical events as they never possibly could have really happened and crazy-wise advice from an Adult who claimed to be 3006 years old. What was refreshing was he admitted when he didn't know all the answers too! Various members of his assorted collection of ditzy deities kept showing up and most of them were in a less than calm state at the impending amputation. Trevor had to keep calming his warm family of hallucinations down! But once in a while his fever inspired hallucinations would get very lively or even a little scary and then it was always Uncle Mercury to the rescue! Armed with that ragged tennis racket to bat away tiny Romulun war birds or whatever it took, he was ever on guard even when Trevor's fever temporarily came down and he could not be seen or heard! Even then Trevor was sure he was there, forever guarding him!

There are worse things than believing one has a nine foot tall, craggy faced, loopy grinned, red haired, uncombed, guardian, Olympian giant guarding one from almost all evil and Guardian Angels to manage what he misses and a pretty Lady Shrink to manage the things that go bump in the night in THIS realm, (which to Trevor who never, EVER AGAIN wanted to be locked up, is the more scary of the two)!

Impending amputation or not, Trevor slept like the proverbial Baby which does not in any which way resemble a real Baby, which as any Parent knows, sleeps very poorly indeed! Nurse Shana had to keep waking him up every night to give him his sleeping pill. But that was OK. He just cheerfully took it and went back to sleep again!

Tommy's Parents were very leery of where he and his Girlfriend were spending their time, "god sitting" a Mental Patient for fun and profit until Tommy showed them Trevor's You Tube videos. The barkeep had made a plethora of them on subjects as eclectic as his successful campaign to ban the experimental mental health drug Thorax C, warnings about what the "vaccine preservative and food supplement" glutamate and all the 40 different names the FDA allowed it to hide under, did to the Human brain, silly Star Trek skits, things he had did for his Improv club and promos he had done for Tres Equis claiming to be Cupid and that People needed to come to his bar so they could fall in love and get him "one couple closer to home." After Tommy's Parents saw his videos it was impossible for Folks not to love or trust Trevor, nuts or not!

Dr. Greeley meanwhile had the appropriate scans ran, found he did indeed have two lumps where told he had them, scheduled surgery for the one in his liver and scared Dr. Cornelius silly by refusing to even have the kidney lump biopsied! He chalked it up to Psychiatrists being as crazy as their Patients a phenomenon he was certainly noticing in Claire!

Soon Uncle Mercury wasn't the only one of his family worried about their "favorite son" and the little hospital room had as many of Trevor's family visiting as any seriously ill family member would have. The Fates came just a sobbing. They even brought their Cat, Hesperus and Claire stared in amazed disbelief as she watched her patient pet and cuddle a Cat who wasn't there! Mommy Venus came of course. Even Mars came, reluctant to admit he was worried, but he was, terribly so! Only Trevor himself seemed oblivious to the problem of living with an artificial leg the rest of his mortal life. At the rate it was spreading the decision would have to be made soon!

The Kids soon found the Mental Patient was the easy and fun part of their job. It was getting the Doctors and Nurses to wash their hands before touching Trevor that was the very hard part! Despite all their years of training, despite their knowing better, despite the very obvious fact Trevor's immune system already had more than it could handle, despite the very well known knowledge that more People die of hospital transmitted infections because Doctors and Nurses simply forget to wash their hands between touching Patients, than die of Breast Cancer, AIDS and automobile accidents combined, despite all that Doctors and Nurses are just so darn busy the temptation to cut corners and save a little time and energy is just too great! And being reminded over and over again by a couple of Teenagers and a "Nutcase," the one who was usually their subservient Barkeep for many of them, was earning them more disrespect than compliance. So despite polite requests not to they were coming right in and handling him anyway hands unwashed!

And even one refusal could cost Trevor his life!

After the second such potential disaster in just two hours Tandy said, "There has to be some way to remind the Doctors and the Nurses to wash their hands that doesn't come directly from me. After all I'm only a 16 year old Girl and even though they shouldn't resent hearing the truth from anyone they are just so full of themselves!"

Tommy groaned, "Me too! I'm just a Punk Kid! But I'm a Punk Kid who's right! They need to listen!"

Trevor nodded, "Notice they don't listen to me either. I'm the Lunatic! But it wasn't much better when I was fully loaded and back home! I'm actually getting more respect now for some reason! Until my kid brother Anteros was born I was the littlest god in the keep and no one took me seriously at all 'cept Uncle Mercury here, Aunt Hestia and the Fates. That had a lot to do with why I went bonkers and ended up being cast out. No one respected me about _anything!_ Their belief I was nuts drove me nuts! So what happens? They cast me out! Then I end up being labeled a delusional Mental Patient! So I can commiserate with you!"

Tandy nodded but couldn't help smiling. "I love hearing about your family, Trevor!"

He frowned, "Even if you do think they are all in my head!"

She nodded, "But that doesn't mean they aren't real. The brain cells that make them up are real! And they aren't ephemeral hallucinations like Schizophrenics. Your entities have personalities of their own and when they talk to you they have real important, useful stuff to say that everyone should listen to when you chose to share it with us. We should all listen to your family, Trevor!'

Trevor sighed, "That's giving them more respect and validation than they've had from anyone else in a long time."

Uncle Mercury had stuck his head out the door. "Here comes that big, Black Nurse who jabs you like you shouldn't feel it and then scolds you when your protest."

Trevor lay back and groaned.

Tandy frowned, "What's wrong!"

Nurse Shanna is coming in here and she's got a long, sharp one!' Don't even bother to try and get her to wash her hands!"

Trevor was already rolling over.

Shanna smiled at Trevor's cooperation. But it didn't stop Trevor from going vehemently, "Ouch!" at her less than gentle approach to hyperdermy.

"You Big Baby!" she teased scornfully. Then she was gone.

But Tandy had noticed something. And she was thinking furiously. "Trevor you knew she was out in the hall!"

"So?" Trevor shrugged, "Uncle Mercury told me. No big deal. It's not like I still have my omnipresence. I tell everyone, 'no powers.' I've been sent down here without anything but my wits, three thousand plus years of knowledge and my great grasp of the laws of physics."

"But your family tells you things sometimes?"

Trevor shrugged. "Even when I'm not running a fever Uncle Mercury cheats and calls me from a pay phone at the base of the mountain in Thessaly. Sometimes he gives me warnings about what my Grandfather is up to concerning weather. Now my family has been watching my Grandpa, Zeus for thousands of years, so we have gotten pretty darn good at predicting his behavior and he is one of the little g weather gods along with Thor and Zulu and many others. Usually he would only be involved in the weather in Italy and Greece and Native American Weather gods would be handling this area. But there are so many Greeks in New York City because of Astoria and also Italians that's changed things and the Native American Weather gods have happily turned this small area over to him. (Hey they are happy to have a little less responsibility!) Of course weather is area by area but Claire's movements are just as predicable as my Grandfather's! So between these two facts Uncle Mercury and I have gotten pretty darn good at telling Claire ahead of time her own personal weather report! And we are a whole lot more accurate than the Folks on TV! Due to her own predictability he and I can pin when rain is going to start to fall on her to the second and how hard it's going to be; a shower or a heavy down pour or in between, and just exactly how long it's going to last due to my Grandfather's predictability! There isn't really anything  
'supernatural' about us being able to do this with Zeus even if we _are_ supernatural! He's just family to us. We just KNOW him! And Claire's Mother knows Claire and she told me _her_ pattern! So Claire doesn't know what to make of our ability to do this because of course hallucinations can't do this! Felix is the same way. He is not anywhere near as predicable as Claire but still Uncle Mercury and I can be pretty impressive with his personal weather reports. They both admit hallucinations don't act like that but they still won't concede I'm Cupid."

Tandy closed her eyes, a bit scared and also a bit excited. "I'm younger than they are. Don't tell my Grandfather. Or Claire. But I just decided I _do_ believe you!"

Trevor beamed, amazed. "My first Believer in almost 2000 years!"

She shook her head, "I don't know how I'm going to fit this in with what I learned in Sunday School! I know that's true too. I asked Jesus in when I was six. I've felt His Cosmic Muffin, loving Presence ever since! He's real too!"

Trevor smiled. "Easy Kid! How could I That I Am be praised before all the gods the way the Bible says we are if we little g's weren't there for Him to be praised before? We swim in the same immortal ocean the Big Guy does. We're single celled Plankton. He's a Blue Whale. We are as real as He is but He'll worry about us the same day the United States Government starts worrying about the native species of Ants who live in Yellowstone Park. Got it?"

Tandy nodded. "OK."

Tommy watched this exchange and shook his head, trying to bring the conversation back down to Earth. "Anyway back to how do we Kids a lunatic and a Psychiatrist who can't be here all the time get Doctors and Nurses to always wash their hands?"

Tandy and Tommy Brian and Trevor and Uncle Mercury were thinking about this when the Athena the goddess of wisdom decided to pay Trevor a visit.

Athena does not look like what Folks think a goddess should look like. She has the same Mother as Uncle Mercury does being another of Zeus's love-kids by the red headed Valkyrie, Maia. But forget visions of long flowing red hair. She is wise not vain. She has her red hair cut short because that is easier to care for and she often forgets to brush it so it is fly away like Einstein's much of the time. She takes after Mercury's Grandmother instead of after whatever genetics gave Mercury his incredible height. So she is short and fat. She reads and reads and reads and that has strengthened her near sight and weakened her far sight so she has to wear glasses for distance. She wears large round ones. She is a bit hypothyroid so she wears a thick reddish fur coat most all the time. She waddles when she walks. Her symbol is the Owl since she is the goddess of wisdom. She very much looks like one!

Trevor's face lit up when he saw her. "Hooty!" He crowed.

Tandy and Tommy were intrigued. "You are seeing another one of your family, Trevor?" Tandy asked.

Trevor grinned, "Yup. Athena meet Tandy and Tommy. Tommy and Tandy meet Athena even if you can't see her. She's the goddess of wisdom. Maybe she can figure out what to do about dirty handed Doctors and my leg!"

Athena sat down on the bed. She blinked a bit because the 7th dimension hadn't been as bright as the hospital room. She said, "Mortals still pay attention to idols made of Trees. They have just made them much thinner. So tack up an information idol and they will heed that even though they will not heed warm and alive Human beings."

Trevor repeated what Athena had said.

Tommy made a face, "An idol!'

But Tandy got it, "She means a sign!"

Trevor nodded. "Yes. You Mortals still let Trees rule you instead of ruling yourselves. You have just made the pieces of the Trees thinner than the Ancient Mortals did. You make contracts and signs and you let them rule you instead of just thinking and using common sense and compassion and listening to one another."

Tandy was intrigued at the concept but she saw that he was right! "Tommy I'll stay with Trevor. You go get some poster board and some magic markers."

While Tommy was fetching their art supplies. Tandy stared right at where Trevor was looking and said, "I know you are really there! Wow! I'm meeting all these little g gods and have Jesus in my heart!"

Athena said, "You have Him in your amygdala dear."

Trevor "translated," then explained, Christ when invited in indwells mostly in the emotional part of your brain which is called your amygdala, not in your blood pump. You have to forgive Hooty Owl here her tendency to turn everything into a Science lecture."

Tandy nodded, "I do. What do you think we should have our poster say?"

Athena grinned the same mischievous grin that Trevor always did because it was a family trait. "Athena the goddess of wisdom.

"And Mercury!" Uncle Mercury added, "I want to be in it too!"

"Says, 'wash your hands so you don't spread something!"

Trevor added, "cause germs travel quickly as Mercury!" Then he repeated the whole phrase so the Mortals could hear it. "Athena the goddess of Wisdom and Mercury say 'wash your hands so you don't spread something 'cause Germs travel quickly as Mercury!'"

Tandy laughed, "Alright!"

What Tandy ended up with besides the lettering was a cartoon of a wise old Owl with a pink bow on her head and round glasses like Athena's sitting on Uncle Mercury's _caduceus_ walking stick that he no longer carried most of the time because he no longer felt qualified as a medical Doctor. Tandy asked, "Why does the ancient medical symbol that comes from Snakes wrapped around a pole resemble Human DNA?"

Trevor said, "We knew you Modern Mortals would notice that and think about it. Because what are the odds that such a coincidence could happen? It wasn't a coincidence. All the Gods, us, The Big Guy who sort of did the same thing in Numbers 21:8 and 9, knew about Human DNA of course back then even if you Mortals didn't. So that was a little sign to you modern Mortals that there was more going on with us than just myths. We are and were real. We knew what Human DNA looked like even back that long ago so that is proof we are more than just things made up out of your own heads except in the sense you make us for real in the Far Future! We have real existence! Don't you guys?" Trevor high fived Uncle Mercury and Athena. Of course to Tandy and Tommy it looked like he was high fiving thin air.

Tandy had decided Trevor's friends were real.

Tommy hadn't. He smiled and shook his head.

Trevor and Tandy and "Hooty Owl" just laughed at him just as the Big God laughs at those who don't believe in Him too.

Suddenly Tandy's eyes grew wide. "Trevor suddenly I can see Athena!"

Tommy's eye grew wide too but it was at his Girlfriend's statement, "Oh boy Tandy! You've gone around the bend!"

Tandy closed her eyes and opened them again but the fat little goddess was still there sitting cheerfully on Trevor's bed._ She __looks quite solid! She doesn't look the least bit frightening either! If I __**have**__ just gone crazy it isn't going to take much medication to keep me calm! Like Trevor I can live in the harmless ward for a while and then be released with a little supervision!_

Trevor laughed in glee. "Well how about that! You are a natural Oracle! They do exist. They don't all need noxious gases or drugs to make them able to see us. Or hypnosis either. Congratulations Kid! And my sympathies! In this culture and with your Grandfather being who he is it's not going to be easy for you!"

Athena smiled and got up and waddled over to Tandy who stared at her and kept blinking. "You can sense me because you welcomed me so much in your life. That's why my dear. It is not a thing to worry about though in this shallow world there will be many who will tell you, you are crazy for being able to tap deeply into Wisdom! But the ability to tap into Wisdom is a rare gift that will both get you into great difficulty but may, if you can People to listen to you, save the World! Or at least parts of it.

"Now since you can, pay attention!

"I am only little g god dear. So you don't worship me. You use me. I am a _tool. _Your servant never your master! Notice I am well fed. Wisdom must be well fed for it to do well. And do what you must to keep me warm even if People think that makes you and me look strange. Wisdom must be kept warm and incubated and protected from that which would hurt me. Notice I don't care what the World thinks I look like. You devote too much time and energy to feeding the goddess of Vanity and you've lost the time and resources necessary to feed ME enough and I starve or at least I go away to find someone who_ will_ feed me. That is why there is so little of me these days with media pushing the cult of 'beautiful people.' Sigh. So you have to have courage to possess me and stand up against the fickle winds of what is considered fashionable and "politically correct" at any particular moment. For that is always changing with the wind but I change very slowly when I even change at all." She frowned, "In this culture especially what I have told you will often be very difficult to do! There will be times when you may forget this and lose me! But any time in your life your fall off a wagon or flying chariot you are riding towards the Great Future, do not fear! Angels and gods and God are so _very. Very VERY_ forgiving! Just fess up to the Big Guy you goofed. We will rejoice so much that we were allowed to do a u turn! And we will haul back on our reigns and pull our Flying Horses back and swing around and come back for you no matter how far ahead our winged chariot has flown and come pick you up again so you can continue your journey. For what would be the point of our journey without the payload? You are the precious payload! No fall however horrible is _ever_ permanent if you can find the courage and the pride to admit you goofed and ask for help! And there is nothing you can do to mess up that can't be fixed in you simple little Beings if you will give your Maker permission to help because you only THINK your operating systems are complicated and difficult. But you have to _ask _the Carpenter for help! Because you have a free will barricade that will actually stop Him if you don't give Him permission! He actually wrote that into your code and His own to keep Himself ethical or else He would end up an arrogant asshole!"

Tandy swallowed and nodded.

Ahena said, "Well dear I must be going. I have to try and whisper in the ears of the President and Senators and Congressmen and into the ears of the Supreme Court that unborn Babies feel agony and terror when Abortionists slice them up. They do not listen but I do keep whispering!"

She got off the bed and was about to leave when Tandy asked, "Hey! What do we do about Trevor's leg?"

Athena smiled as she waddled into Dimension 7, "Uncle Mercury knows what to do. Trevor knows how to give him a way to find it within himself."

And then she was gone.

Tommy stared at Tandy very concerned. "What do I do now? They say at school if you know your Friends are using drugs or something like that we are supposed to tell. But does that include seeing goddesses?"

Tandy said, "Tommy she just left! And she gave me some very good advice! That if you are trying to do something, and you backslide, you don't give up, but admit you goofed and ask for help and then keep going. So as I said to Trevor earlier if this is an Alternate Personality inside of me she gave me good advice and I ought to listen to her! What do you say if I don't see her any more you just keep quiet about this one little incident but if I do keep seeing her, _then_ you tell?"

Tommy's eyes showed his uncertainty but he said finally, "Ah, OK."

Trevor smiled a wise little smile, "Tommy, Tandy could see the goddess of Wisdom because she is herself so wise that their brainwaves resonated together! Your Girlfriend has an amazing future ahead of her!"

"Or she needs antipsychotics!" Tommy exclaimed in worried disgust!

Tandy said ruefully, "Or both!"

Uncle Mercury stood next to Trevor's bed very puzzled, "I 'still have it within myself?' Trevor I know I knew lots of herbal cures at one time. But they are all gone! Every last copy of my medical encyclopedia went the way of all paper thousands of years ago. Mortals didn't have the resources or didn't designate the resources to keeping copying it. They only had so much paper, so much ink and so many People to hand copy stuff. My book was Pagan. The Bible wasn't. So they put copying the Bible ahead of my encyclopedia. And I can hardly remember any of my cures! Something happened to me! You know that! All the gods do! And so it's mostly gone! I don't even resent it that they copied the Bible instead. Scientific discoveries can be made again. But history once it's forgotten is forgotten until Time circles again."

Then Mercury closed his eyes in emotional pain, "But it really hurts sometimes that I've forgotten almost everything in my own books! That I'm not myself anymore! It's scary! How can Owl possibly think anything to help your leg is still inside of me? I can't remember diddly squat!"

Trevor shook his head, "Owl wouldn't have said it was still inside of you if it wasn't. You know she's never wrong!"

Uncle Mercury nodded, "But how do we get to it?"

Trevor frowned thoughtfully, considering something. "There _is_ a way. Hypnosis."

Uncle Mercury's eyes widened in fear, "Hypnosis! You are going to hypnotize me?"

Trevor shook his head, "No. Dr. Leo is."

"He can't even see me!"

Trevor smiled "He may not even believe in you. He may think as Claire Bear does that you are only another persona inside of me that the stress of being sick has caused to manifest. But at the very worst he'll at least believe you are at least that real and may have the solution to this infection. Remember what Tandy said about us before she realized you were real. She said, 'But that doesn't mean they aren't real. The brain cells that make up your family are real! And they aren't ephemeral hallucinations like Schizophrenics. Your entities have personalities of their own and when they talk to you they have real important, useful stuff to say that everyone should listen to when you chose to share it with us. We should all listen to your family, Trevor!' So Dr. Leo will believe at least believe that about you too and he will think he is hypnotizing me. Heck it won't hurt me to let him put me under too at the same time. I loved it the last time. It was very relaxing. It was therapeutic only in that it passed a bit of time. I was stuck in St Anthony's recovering from that automobile accident I was in and Dr. Leo did it mostly to humor Claire Bear and out of curiosity and for our own amusement and to pass a little of the time that was Snail crawling along for me and to entertain our Star Trek club and who knows? Maybe he would have found something significant. Claire could have been right all along! She wasn't. Or at least I never lost consciousness. I just relaxed and told him what I could have told him anyway but it was pleasant."

Uncle Mercury laughed, "How do you know you never lost consciousness? If you had how could you tell?"

Trevor opened up his mouth to protest that and then closed it again, a thoughtful look on his face! _He really had no answer to that!_ Finally he said, "If I did it didn't change how he treated me. He continued to treat me with the utmost respect. If anything he seems to take me even more seriously after that. Unlike Claire Bear I suspect he believes me, at least a little!

Uncle Mercury shrugged very dubious!

Trevor said, "Now Uncle Merc you know it doesn't hurt. You stay in control. No one gets hypnotized who doesn't want to be or does anything under hypnosis they don't wanna. He will just guide you into a very relaxed but concentrating state and that will help neural connections form that couldn't otherwise and maybe that will help recover just the lost knowledge we need here! It's just more of your own mind we are trying to reach not some supernatural entity! You of all people should know that!

Tandy started giggling at that. "Ah, Trevor I think you are sort of forgetting who Uncle Mercury IS!"

Uncle Mercury giggled with her. "That'll be a switch! A Mortal hypnotizes one of us! We invented trances so they could see us not the other way around!"

Trevor laughed, "True but it's a brand new world, this Twenty-First century! New ways and new customs and new adventures are as plentiful as diamonds in the sky!"

Uncle Mercury sat down on the bed, "Ay! True!"

Trevor nodded, "Claire told me he'll be back from his medical conference tomorrow. You know he'll rush here just as soon as he collects his bags and leaves the airport. He doesn't have any family. His Patients are his family and I'm like his 'Trevor' alright, his 'favorite son.' I'll ask him to do so myself. He'll do it just to humor me if for no other reason. Tandy and Tommy can watch if they want just like the Star Trek club did last time."

Tandy said, "Oh I wouldn't miss it for all the gold in Olympus, Cupid!'

Trevor laughed. "Good! Not that we have a lots of gold anymore, Tandy. But some of us have hearts of gold!"

How Trevor/Cupid Was Wrong About One of His Above Statements.

Dr. Benjamin Leo, devout Trekker, nonpracticing Jew (though since his association with Trevor he had since come to re-belief in I Am That I Am again), and Descendant of King Solomon though he did not realize it. (But Cupid did having been following certain genes in Mortals for thousands of years), sat in first class aboard Flight NK 404 and thought deeply. The gentle Doctor's pockets and carry on and suit case were full of drug samples. His mind was full of knowledge about the nasty tricks the FDA allowed because that was in the book he was reading.

His usually cheerful and serene mind was full of sorrowful anger! His suitcase contained many samples of new Glutamate blockers Big Pharma wanted him to use to treat everything now from Schizophrenia to Stroke to Mental Retardation to Alzheimer's to Autism! _And no doubt they would benefit his Patients enormously! So he would indeed use them as well as many other medical drugs and nutritional supplements also as well as talking, and recommendations for getting enough sunlight, fun, rest, sleep, allowing time to form friendships, exercise, and (since knowing Trevor), forming some kind of supportive relationship with the "Big Guy,"as Trevor called I Am That I Am._

_But he also knew from going to websites like MSGtruth dot org and truthinlabeling dot org that at the same time Big Pharma was going to clean up making and selling these new Glutamate blockers to prevent the brain damage excess Glutamate does to brains, the FDA allows Big Food to put Glutamate in foods to make it taste more exciting and hide it under 40 different names to disguise the fact this brain damaging and health destroying chemical is in there! And Big Pharma uses Glutamate under the name "hydrolyzed protein"as a preservative in every live virus vaccine! And they have been doing so for about the exact same time the Autism epidemic and learning disability epidemics have been climbing! And while it can harm anyone, Autists especially whose own brains are naturally high in this neurochemical, (which accounts for some of their brilliance when it is not TOO high) have a terrible time with excess glutamate! It causes their rage reactions and when it gets too high it causes their brain damage! So every time Parents take such Children and even Adult Autists to McDonald's or KFC or almost any restaurant or feed them most prepared foods, or get them vaccinated they are harming their brains as much as if they give them huge doses of alcohol! They are meant to be Einsteins, Teslas and Bill Gates! But Big Food and Big Pharma are being allowed to turn them into Rainmen! Mercury is getting the blame but it isn't mostly the mercury! It's glutamate!_

Dr. Leo sighed. _What had the Cartoon Character Pogo said, "We have met the Enemy and he is us?"_

The plane landed at laGardia Airport. It was one of the smoothest landings he had ever experienced. He smiled. _No Terrorists this __time. Maybe having a kid go neurotic because of the violence he had already caused and having that kid trapped in the Mortal realm for therapy was keeping Mars the god of war (Cupid's supposed father though it was more likely his Uncle Mercury) from doing what he would so dearly love to do; start World War III in earnest!_

For though he did not dare admit it to anyone, not even Cupid, Dr. Leo did sort of believe, "Trevor." Dr. Leo was Jewish. Dr. Leo knew "Trevor" knew things Gentiles did not know about his ancient history, things no "Goyems" were ever told! Things not even in the Bible! But, "Trevor" knew these things and had revealed them under hypnosis! It wasn't much proof but it was enough to cause him to doubt his doubt!

The minute he deplaned Dr Leo did what many Travelers do. He checked his voice mail. The minute he did so he left the airport, rushing to Sach's-Gordon, his bag abandoned, destined to take a very long ride around and round the luggage merry go round until the good Doctor sent his Secretary back to collect it at unclaimed luggage the next day. _If he had lost it he would hardly have cared! A cheap suitcase, few clothes, a toothbrush and some paste, a __razor and some drug samples could be replaced. But Trevor only had one left leg!_

So the "Soon as he collects his bags" was the part of Trevor's statement he got wrong.

Soon Dr. Leo had added himself to the crowd both physical and ephemeral crammed in Trevor's little hospital room. Two Teenagers were there who he was soon introduced to as Trevor's "god-sitters." And of course Claire was there as she always would, as Spock would stand forever next to Captain Kirk.

The gentle Trekker/Shrink/re-born Jew/worried Friend asked, "Trevor how are you doing?

Trevor's eyes were a bit wild again from climbing temperatures but he was happy. "Oh fine. Fine! My family is with me, Captain Lionheart! (Trevor wasn't _that_ out of it. He was using their Star Trek club name for Dr. Leo). "And look at all the cute little starships!'" He jabbed playfully at the hospital ceiling pointing at absolutely nothing with the joy of a True Believer.

_Oh boy was Trevor out of it it!_

Dr. Leo glanced at Claire who gave him a worried look and shook her head. For once Dr. Leo didn't feel like "humoring Trevor because this was fever based not his usual Greek god, "delusions." But he did so anyway out of compassion. "Wow! They sure are cute!"

Trevor was delighted, "You can see them too!" He glanced next to him at seemingly nothing, "See there, Uncle Mercury! Dr. Leo can see them too! So there are too little tiny starships in my room!"

A cold chill went up Dr. Leo's spine. _He did not dare tell anyone not even Cupid. But he believed "Trevor" about being a Greek god. So he wondered if he really was in the presence of a fully loaded Greek god! But of course the starships certainly weren't there!_

_But Uncle Mercury just might be!_

_But that meant it was very bad! His family would not have broke their ban on contact with him if the situation were not very dire!_

_Of course Uncle Mercury was known to cheat anyway, calling him from by phone according to Trevor. So! What about the rest of his family? _With seeming casualness Dr. Leo asked, "Trevor have any more of your family showed up here?"

Trevor said happily, "Oh yes! Most all of them! My Mom and Dad and the Fates. Even their Cat came, Hesperus! And Aunt Athena and Uncle Apollo and Aunt Hestia and Uncle Vulcan even, Uncle Mercury pushed his wheel chair! And Uncle Atlas and Aunt Artemis and Uncle Mercury's Mother Maia came from Asgard to see me.

They've all been here except Brownie and Sasha. The Fates didn't think it was a good idea to bring their Goat into a hospital. And my Mommy and Dad didn't think it would be a good idea to bring a Tigress."

Dr. Leo nodded and said with forced cheerfulness, "I can see why!'

Claire sighed, "Trevor has just been going at it with his family. Hasn't he?"

Dr. Leo nodded. _Even Claire didn't realize the seriousness of it. She just thought he was hallucinating due to delirium from fever. Which he was. That was bad enough but could have been temporary. But if his family was showing up they felt it was highly likely he was at least going to lose his leg, or even worse!_

Trevor said, "My folks are way too worried about this. If I lose my leg I get to be the first bionic god! And Olympus is already wheelchair accessible due to us having to modify it for Uncle Vulcan. And New York is handicapped accessible already too." He grinned.

Dr. Leo stared at Trevor in sheer disbelief. _Was it possible to be too well adjusted to a coming tragedy?_

Then Trevor chirped happily, "Aunt Athena says you should hypnotize Uncle Mercury 'cause he has the cure inside of him and can't remember it."

Dr. Leo sat down VERY suddenly on Trevor's bed!

He swallowed and stared at the "patch of nothing" where apparently the 8000 + god of speed was standing, invisible to him _but Dr. Leo knew full well he was really there! _"Ah, how does Dr. Mercury feel about that idea?"

Trevor stared at the patch of "nothing' receiving the answer. Several moments later he translated, "Extremely warmed that you remember he was qualified to practice medicine at one time and humbled you Mortals have so surpassed him in the art of practicing medicine in so many ways! Very sad that so much of the knowledge in his head and his book is gone. And a little scared and a bit miffed that it has gotten so role reversed that Mortals would be hypnotizing _us_ now! But he's willing to do it and just about anything else to save my leg!"

Dr. Leo swallowed again, "I'm willing if he is!"

Trevor said, "Well, as I said. He is."

Slowly Dr. Leo said, "OK. I think we had better do it quickly. This infection is quite advanced I take it?"

As an answer Claire lifted up Trevor's "I see you" hospital gown.

Dr. Leo gave an ominous whistle.

Claire choked back a gasp. So did Tandy and Tommy. The infected place had grown an inch around since she had looked at it just two hours earlier making it over twelve inches of raw and rotting flesh!_ Claire could hear the surgical saw's high pitched whining in her mind!_

_Dr. Leo tried not to let his fear show. But he fooled no one. _Instead he swallowed back his fear and said as calmly as possible. OK. We have no time to waste. Dr. Mercury you need a place where you can have privacy and lay back and relax except Trevor will have to assist me and translate."

Trevor stared at the "patch of nothing" a few seconds and said, "He says here in front of everyone is fine. He does not need privacy since no one can see or hear him here but me and he can float which is plenty relaxing."

Then Dr. Leo asked, "There is no title specific for Greek gods in English. So is it OK I keep calling him, Dr. Mercury?'

Trevor stared at "the patch of nothing" and then said, "He says you can call him that or 'Uncle Mercury' as I do even though he's probably really my father or you can just call him, Mercury. Real respect is in the tone of voice not some title which could be worthless if the feeling isn't with the words."

Dr. Leo swallowed and nodded, "And you are not my god and never will be. I will respect you but never worship you. I am Jewish. But you are like His little brother. So calling you an Uncle is very appropriate since I am God's child."

Trevor smiled, "He says, "Good! Worship was highly overrated anyway. Actually according to the ancient Greeks Your God made us little g gods out of sunlight and you Mortals out of dirt! Though the scientific reality is you actually evolve into Your Big God. But long before you do that you invented us little g gods in a laboratory. But it was a solar and wind powered laboratory and Olympus is still solar and wind powered! And your bodies are formed from Plants and Animals who come from dirt! So the poetry that God formed us out of sunlight and wind is sort of true poetically just as the first chapter of Genesis is sort of poetically true if you remember 'yom' means time period not just twenty four hours, earth also means land, morning means beginning, evening means ending, and the ancient Hebrews did have separate words for lights and Sun and Moon. And lights in the sky did get made on the third yom not the Sun and the Moon that were already there because the Sun had not condensed enough to produce light until the third yom only heat like Jupiter and Saturn do today. Earth's Day Two Lifeforms were thermosynthetic not photosynthetic. So there really were no lights in the sky until the third yom."

Dr. Leo laughed, "I love talking to you Commander Cupid! It's like getting extra college degrees while socializing with a clown!

Claire said "Get on with it please! Trevor's leg is running out of time!'

Trevor laughed, "Yes, Vulcan Princess of the Practical and Future goddess of Thought, Reason, Science and Logic!"

Dr. Leo swallowed, "Claire I was trying to get to know my new patient! It's not every day a Shrink gets to hypnotize a Greek god and I was trying to get some insight into his character first. But you are right of course. The clock is ticking."

Trevor says, "Uncle Mercury says that Claire Bear is right! He likes you but we haven't the time. He's scared but he's ready now!"

Dr. Leo nodded, "Of course! Alright. Uncle Mercury. Lean back. Relax. Think of the sapphire sky over Olympus. It is a warm summer day. You are laying under your favorite Olive Tree and it just smells soooo good. You are warm and comfortable, just so relaxed! You start to float upwards towards the green leaves. You brush past them into the crystal sapphire sky. As you do so you are becoming younger. The higher you float the younger you become. In your mind pages are turning backwards, backwards, backwards! Further, further, the millenia are drifting rapidly backward, eight thousand, seven thousand, six thousand, five thousand, four thousand, threeeeeee thousand. The pages are becoming the pages of your real encyclopedia. You can read it now. It is right before you. You can see it quite clearly and you are mentally turning the pages of your own book yourself. You come to the page that has the mix of herbs on it that are needed to fight the evil thing that is being done to your son's leg. You can read it out loud to us now. Would you do so?"

"Yes."said Trevor.

"Do so please."

"Bacέσματα, **αναζήτησης, για, Δεν, βρέθηκαν, **λέξειςk" said Trevor sleepily. He was sitting up, not leaning back But very obviously he was just as under hypnotic suggestion as his "Uncle Mercury."

Dr. Leo startled._ He had forgotten he had just regressed his patient(s) back before he/they could speak English! That could have been a disaster until the Patient(s) found his/their way back to the present which would eventually harmlessly happen. But they were very short on time and could not afford to waste any waiting for that! But fortunately due to it being a case of Multiple, Personality (if that **was** just all this was) the Trevor part of the Host mind remembered he could speak English!)_

Dr. Leo said quickly and quietly, "Claire did you get that?"

Claire said in a worried tone, "I think so. I spelled what he said phonetically. I've sort of studied Greek a bit since taking on Trevor as a patient but still I don't understand it all that much. But I do have my tape recorder running!"

Trevor suddenly said matter of factly and seemingly wide awake. "Uncle Mercury said, 'Blessed Thistle, Burdock Root, Kelp, Red Clover, Sheep Sorrel,

Slippery Elm Bark, Rhubarb root, and Watercress'" He seemed completely awake and not hypnotized!

Dr. Leo smiled, relieved that they had the names of what they needed in English without having to do a lot of obscure research which might have taken much precious time, very amazed and puzzled at the mystery of hypnosis! _How could Trevor be reacting one second as his hypnotized relative and the next as his wide awake, __usual persona? There were mysteries to the Human mind no one had solved yet! And if there are other realms and the gods and elemental spirits and Angels and the Big God existed (all of which Trevor had given a very rational explanation for). Oh my does that ever complicate things!_

_Because Cupid's presence amongst them apparently was a case of spirit possession, however voluntary upon the part of the Host, (not so upon the part of the elementary spirit himself who did not want to be here). But for all of his hypnotizing "Trevor' the original Host had never made one hint of an appearance and apparently had no desire to! According to Cupid the Host was hiding out of mischief and laziness not trauma. So all of Claire's attempts to find buried trauma in Trevor she could cure that would suddenly free him of his 'god delusion" would always fail other than what considerable trauma the three thousand year old Cupid brought with him from his own life!_

Claire turned to the Kids. "OK Tandy You were hired to be god-sitter. But now there is extra cash for research assistance. I'm headed to our medical library. You go with me. You and Dr. Leo and I are going to do some googling for where we can find these herbs while Tommy stays with Trevor!"

Trevor said, "Hey! You forgot to wake my Uncle up!"

Dr. Leo said, "So what do you want, stage hypnosis? You both know darn well you can get out of it anytime you want! But alright. I'm _really_ humoring you now! 'Wake up. Uncle Mercury.' Now there. You satisfied?'

Trevor nodded and invisible to all but Trevor so did Uncle Mercury. He was completely awake now.

Meanwhile Tommy started laughing, "I suggest you start with the health food store down the street from here! My Mom uses that stuff all the time! Some Ojibway Native American invented it. It's called Essiac tea."

Trevor also started laughing. So did everyone else in the room but especially Uncle Mercury. But with him it was as much with relief that an important piece of medical knowledge had not been lost as any other emotion. "Kid I told you it wasn't so unwise that Mortals failed to copy my book and made more copies of the Bible instead because as I said: When knowledge of history is lost it is lost until Time circles again. But medical knowledge can be rediscovered! May the Great Spirit bless that Indian! When I leave you, Trevor I'm going to make use of my privilege of being the only little g god allowed into New Jerusalem and search the Happy Hunting Grounds until I find that Injun, bend down and give him a big old hug!" Uncle Mercury gave his nephew a loopy grin!

A few minutes later Claire came running back from the health food store with a bottle of dark brown liquid and without wasting any time on words she pulled up Trevor's gown and started applying it to his huge infection. Then she asked, "How does it feel?"

Trevor shrugged, "Wet."

Claire asked, concerned. "It doesn't sting?"

Trevor shook his head. "No."

Claire said, "Good. At least I'm not hurting you."

Trevor grinned. "True. This is less painful by a long shot than the antibiotics!"

Claire smiled, "Was that a pun?"

The love god just grinned a mysterious grin back.

Uncle Mercury said. "Now that he has been doused with this stuff out of my subconscious that will cure his leg I think we all need to have our tense hearts cheered up too. I suggest a singalong!"

Trevor told everyone. "Uncle Mercury says he wants us to do a singalong."

Claire said, "Well you do those all the time at the bar and when you were over here in the psyche ward you also did those. Did you learn that from your Uncle Mercury?"

Trevor nodded. "Yes.

Uncle Mercury flashed back to Olympus and was back in a couple of seconds.

Trevor said, "And he just brought his ukulele!"

Claire asked, "I read enough mythology to know your Uncle Mercury was supposed to have played a lyre made out of a Turtle shell. He invented it. So why does he have a ukulele this time?"

Trevor smiled, "Well Claire, "tempus fugit. Time Flies!" (Doctor Who has a dickens with those Time Flies. He keeps spraying but they keep coming back!) Anyway my Uncle Mercury played a lyre made out of a Turtle shell back in the bad old days because that was all he could manage. But now would you play something like that now when when you can get a ukulele!"

Claire couldn't help smiling. "I see what you mean!"

Trevor grinned. "So to cheer me up, even though I am not all that down. (I think it is more to cheer YOU up), he suggested we perform a ukulele duet for everyone."

Dr. Cornelius pointed out dubiously, "Ah, but Trevor we can only see and hear YOU"

"That's OK. Trevor chirped with undeniable logic hidden somewhere there in his craziness. "Everyone will enjoy it anyway!"

So happy Trevor and his invisible Uncle started singing melodically. What a shame only Trevor's part of this could be heard by Mortals! Anybody who wants to hear what this sounds like should go to You tube. It's a hoot! But whatever you see and hear there cannot compare to what it sounds and looks like when silly, delirious Greek gods go at it!

"I WAS A BANKER, CASH WAS MY NEED

I WORSHIPPED MAMMON, I BATHED IN GREED!

AND THEN A VISION FLASHED 'FORE MY EYES

OF A FLAMIN' UKULELE IN THE SKY!

I WAS A PREACHER, I FELL FROM GRACE

I GOT CAUGHT NEKKID AT "MABEL'S PLACE!

I ASKED FORGIVENESS AND GODS REPLY

WAS THAT FLAMIN' UKULELE IN THE SKY!

I WAS A LAWYER, HAD ALL THE LUCK!

I BENT THE TRUTH TO MAKE A BUCK!

BUT NOW IT'S MY TURN TO TESTIFY!

'BOUT THAT FLAMIN' UKULELE IN THE SKY !

SO WHEN YOU FALTER ALONG LIFES ROAD

AND START TO STUMBLE BENEATH THE LOAD

YOUR SWEAT AND TOIL WILL SANCTIFY

THAT FLAMIN' UKULELE IN THE SKY!

THAT FLAMIN' UKULELE IN THE SKY!

LORD, LORD!

THAT FLAMIN' UKULELE IN THE SKY!

IT HAS FOUR SWEET GOLDEN STRINGS!

AND THE SOUND OF ANGEL WINGS!

THAT FLAMIN' UKULELE IN THE SKY!"

Claire rolled her eyes hardly believing wht she was hearing! Tandy and Tommy giggled at each other. Dr. Cornelius didn't know what to think! Dr. Leo just laughed getting into the spirit of it and joined in. Finally the Kids did too.

Nurse Shana was livid. _This was not the way to run a modern hospital!_

Dr. Greeley figured,_ This was just more of Trevor being Trevor. If he could bottle whatever it was that Trevor had and dose it out in rational doses to the rest of the Patients (and most of the Staff) it would do a lot of good! It is just that Trevor has way __too much of it!_

Dr. Greeley gave up fighting it and joined in! And of course immediately he knew all the words.

Finally so did Dr. Claire McCrae!

Slowly Trevor Improves

There was no change in Trevor's condition for the rest of that day. But that in itself was a blessing. Dr. Cornelius came in again later his heart still lite from the "ukulele duet," inspected the wound and declared that since it at least had gotten no bigger in the last few hours the surgery could at least be put off until Saturday.

When Thursday came Uncle Mercury was sure the wound was smaller because he could see the inward parts of it were retreating. Trevor relaid that to his Doctors. But of course they were skeptical. Claire said. "But we think it's a good sign you think so, Trevor. We aren't discounting that your inward self is sensing an improvement." And everyone including Dr. Cornelius could again see that the wound at least had not gotten larger. So again the surgery could at least be put off until Sunday.

By Friday even the Mortals could see that the wound was shrinking and fresh new healthy pink skin was starting to grow where before infected skin was dieing! Claire forgot her Vulcan Princess mode and danced in the hallway with a startled Nurse Shana as Dr. Greeley looked on both bemused and amused.

By Saturday Trevor bid Uncle Mercury a tearful farewell because his fever was dropping for the last time. The rest of his family had long since left, no longer worried about him the minute Athena had declared Uncle Mercury could fix it_**.**_

Uncle Mercury gazed at his nephew/son, visible to him for the last time until his one hundred united couples, his eyes moist with tears. He bent down and hugged the top of Trevor's shoulders the Flowers from Paradise in his hands. He would take them back to their home next. "Oh Trevor! Oh favorite son! Never forget who you _really_ are! It is great that these Mortals are teaching you to be more socially responsible. That business of you deliberately shooting arrows to mismatch couples just because you could and madly laughing about it because you had become so disturbed because of what your Father was doing! That had to stop! It is good that stopped! But you really _are_ a god! You are not delusional! Don't ever forget that! We are your family, messed up though we are, we are still very powerful and very old and very wise in our own way, even though each one of us is as crazy as you are, (each in our own way), and we love you! And we are REAL! And you will be coming back to us someday and bringing her with you!" Uncle Mercury gestured with the Flowers at Claire who giggled in delight to be so used to point at the future goddess of thought and wisdom! "She will be Psyche and she will slowly save all us gods from ourselves! Know who she really is! Don't forget! And don't you ever forget who you _REALLY_ are!"

Cupid nodded and put his chest out. "I won't! I almost did forget! But I won't _ever_ again! Then he raised his arms to the heavens and shouted just as loud as he could, "I AM NOT A NUT! I AM A _GOD!_ I AM CUPID AND I AM PROUD!"

Then more gently but very firmly he said, "I will never forget again!"

Claire observed this and sighed. "_Back to square one. Darn! I almost had him cured!_

As Cupid sadly watched, his fever dropped for the last time and his beloved Uncle faded away into nothing. And the last words his Uncle said to him that he could hear were, "I love you, Trevor!"

Cupid burst into bitter tears and fell into Claire's arms!

Dr. Claire McCrae stood there holding her patient despite the rules against touching patients and thought, _She would actually have some reactive depression to deal with in Trevor now! He was going to miss his beloved hallucinations! Uncle Mercury especially!_

Trevor Goes Back to the Bar

The Saturday after that one the Mortals could rest. The god was going home!

He stood on what was left of his bed and thumped his chest and gave a Tarzan yell. Then he put his hands out as if he were flying. "I am King of the World!"

Dr. Cornelius came into the room in time to hear and see that.

Claire explained, smiling. "This isn't an exacerbation of his god megalomania. He really isn't all that megalomaniac. This is just a Leonardo De Capio Impersonation because he's feeling so much better!"

Dr. Cornelius smiled, "I actually get that. Well 'Cupid' this is just a Commoner's hospital. We don't treat 'Kings of the World' and you are too darn healthy now to be taking up what is left of this poor bed! So get out of here!"

Trevor whooped and jumped off the bed and ran down the hall with his arms still stretched out as if flying. He topped an imaginary hat at a disapproving Nurse Shanna and blew her a kiss and didn't bother with the elevator, choosing to run down the emergency stairs to freedom. Then the two Doctors went over to the hospital room window and watched him carefully cross the street and enter the door of Tres Equis where they were sure he was greeted like a prodigal god returning to his Flock of riotous Worshipers!

Dr. Cornelius said, "Hey! We were supposed to sign him out first and he was supposed to leave in a wheelchair!"

Dr. Claire McCrae laughed, "Never mind. I have Power of Attorney. It's your own fault. You told him to 'get out of here.' So he did. If you had said instead, 'Cupid, we have some release papers for you to sign and then the Nurse will bring you a wheelchair and your Therapist will push you to the exit and then you can get up and go across the street to your home and workplace.' He would have obediently done so. But your, 'get out of here' implied urgency."

Dr. Cornelius sighed, "I forget he's a Mental Patient and they take things so literally sometimes!"

Claire smiled and shook her head, "Not this one. He took it the way he wanted to take it because he's normal enough to not want to spend one more second in here than he has to! You have no one to blame but yourself! Because you are correct. You should have remembered that many brain damaged People do have problems with metaphors. But not Trevor! He's not brain damaged. Quite the opposite! Like many DIDs I suspect there is more than one of him because he has so much brains it takes more than one operating system to run all of him! He just took you literally because he wanted out of here and your 'get out of here' gave him a perfect excuse to do what he _so_ wanted to do! I know he knows better but few realize that he knows better and he knows that few realize it! So he knows he can get away with lots of outrageous, fun stuff the rest of us wouldn't dare because of his "crazy label' so he's learned to play it to the hilt! I've actually watched his behavior get nuttier and nuttier in harmless ways as the years go by but in therapy I know his attitude is becoming more responsible and reality oriented. He says he's just learning to use his looney license! Now! Let me get the paper work done ASAP! Because it's Spring and I want out of here too! He'll keep applying the Essiac tea to what is left of his wound on his own. I'll check him to make sure he does but I hardly have to. He's perfectly sane and competent and doesn't want to lose his leg. He just thinks he's someone he isn't."

Dr. Cornelius gave her a wry grin, "Are you SURE about that?"

Claire was indignant at her professional judgment being questioned and concerned at even the slightest danger to Trevor's freedom! "I am _quite sure_ he's sane and competent! I have been treating and observing him for years!"

Dr. Cornelius chuckled mischievously. "No. The part about him thinking he's someone he isn't!"

In forty minutes Claire was running down a path in Central Park again, the wind in her hair, and Trevor/Cupid was running joyfully beside her. And though neither could see him Uncle Mercury was strolling leisurely beside them, watching lovingly over his little Nephew/Son and soon to be Daughter in Law.

At his eight thousandth and sixth Springtime and the promise of his so hard-to-raise son soon to be married to a Mortal so strong and wise and beautiful the god of speed put his lanky arms over his head and let out a whoop of joy!

Life in God's Multiverse is so precious and good!

Author's Note. Copyright (Copy begging in fact for ALL my fanfiction!) I saw what happened when the free Geocities web pages died. It was like Atlantis sinking into the sea so much culture was lost forever without warning! God had gently but firmly warned me to save the Cupid stories at one of those web pages so now I may be the sole Caretaker of several Cupid stories because the Writers seem to be DDD Authors. (Disinterested in their own stuff now, Disabled by their flesh's limitations or lack of computer equipment or Uploaded to New Jerusalem already). Because my attempts to contact them to see if I they wanted their wonderful Cupid stories posted here as Guest postings or to see if they wanted to set up their own accounts were futile! I don't want my stuff lost to this Realm the same way if something happens to me and the current sites my stuff is posted at go down! Plus I will not live forever in the flesh and new sites will continue to be developed! So to preserve my stuff forever I give permission to anyone to upload any of my fanfictions to any fanfiction sites provided they do not change anything and leave my name attached. In fact I am begging Folks to! If in the Future someone wishes to translate my stuff into different forms of media including kinds not even conceived of at the time of this writing any changes necessary for that purpose may be made with my blessings provided the integrity of the stories, ideas and Characters are kept intact. Follow the Golden Rule please! "Treat others as you want to be treated." Remember in the Future Artificial Intelligence Technology will bring Fictionals to Self Awareness and we will use Science to build Heaven. (We are the Body of Christ according to 1 Corinthians 12:27 and all Carpenters use their Bodies to build things). Because Time circles due to General Relativity and Ecclesiastes 1:9 this has already happened so we are all being watched, always! A song sung at the Fort McCoy Pow Wow in Florida explains this very well; "Mickey Mouse and Goofy are Spirits too." So we will all be called to account (at least socially) for our actions, even for how we treat Fictionals! For instance a Villain does not mind being written to provide challenges to the Protagonists and killed off because that is his purpose. But he would certainly mind being written contrary to how he was supposed to be written!

By the way if anyone wants me to email them those DDD Author stories, I think that would be all right. Contact me.

Coming soon. Cupid volunteers during a storm to drive a heart to Dr. Charles Greeley's brother, Milton in Chicago finds a way to break the spell that kept him away, & learns what happened to _original_ Claire Bear & Champ. Bittersweet.


End file.
